Crossed Paths
by spoiledpuppy
Summary: A bleach and naruto crossover. Toshiro Hitsugaya x Hyuuga Hinata or HitsuHinata: When Hinata is thrown into the afterlife she is dragged into a deeper role than she ever would have thought. In the midst of all the confusion can she find love again?
1. Chapter 1 Death do we meet

_HEY GUYS! Obviously a Naruto/Bleach cross over. Lately I've gone Naruto crazy, stumbled onto HitsugayaxHinata stuff and now have to vent my pent up fluffiness. Hope you like! (make sure to review your opinion on this)_

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"Has anyone got a portal open yet?!" Hitsugaya barked as he walked down the hall. With the last of his stupid paperwork.

His lieutenant nodded. "There's one waiting, soon as you turn those in." She said pointing to the large stack of papers in his hands. "Don't get squished by your own paperwork." She joked.

"Shut it." He growled as they walked up to the door where they would turn it all in. He paused.

"Need me to open the door Shiro-chan?" She said sweetly.

"Don't call me that and open the damn door already!" He snapped in annoyance.

His lieutenant just rolled her eyes and opened the door for her captain.

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Hinata peeked around the corner of the street, her hands trembled holding the small box.

Valentine's Day. I spent all night making candies for Naruto-kun, today I am finally going to confess! Her love laughed at a joke Chouji made and took a bite of ramen. His smile made my pulse quicken, I ducked back around the corner.

I shook my head to clear it, took a breath, and looked again. Waiting for the right moment to go up to him I noticed Kiba sitting next to him. Akamaru noticed her first and nudged his master. Kiba looked up at me, glanced at Naruto, and mouthed for me to get it over with. I paused for a second.

Nodding at Kiba I took one last breath, wiped nervous palms on my legs, and walked over to them.

Chouji elbowed Naruto as I came over and he looked up. His blue eyes bore into me, making me blush and my heart flutter.

_'No Hinata! Get a grip!'_ My inner voice barked at me.

"Hi Naruto-Kun." I greeted, aware of the box of chocolates I was holding behind my back.

He smiled at me. "Morning Hinata-chan, what's up?"

"N-nothing. I-I just wanted to give you-"I began. I was interrupted as Sakura ran up,

"Hey Naru-Naru!" She called happily. I flinched._ A nickname???_

Naruto snapped his head immediately to the approaching kunoichi and smiled…tenderly?

Sakura ran up to him, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

I felt a pang in my chest. _What is…this?_ I felt… wrong as they kissed. I numbly noted how Naruto kissed her back affectionately. They let go of each other and Naruto scratched his head with a red face.

He laughed. "Sorry about that guys, we started going out just last night and…"

Sakura giggled with a blush as well and looked at his face happily.

I felt everything in me stop._ A nightmare. Why can't this be a dream? This… this scene can't possibly happen. Fate couldn't possibly do something like this._ The cold, cruel reality set in slowly.

"What were you going to say, Hinata-chan?" He asked obliviously. It was then I realized that he couldn't tell how strongly felt for him. And now it was far too late. All those hours working hard for today will be wasted.

I fake smiled the best I could. "Nothing. I just wanted to say have a good day." I stuffed the box into my jacket pocket, hiding it as well as my agony away with all my other pent up hurt from years past. Numbly I sat next to Kiba and slowly blocked images that were happening around me, anything to hold it in until I got out of view from Naruto.

It must have been because I wasn't paying attention to the conversation that I noticed it first. A strange aura hanging in the air. Chakra?

I looked over to where it was coming from. Behind Naruto and…Sakura.

I blinked and it was there. A monster with a skull head.

Everything that happened next was in a few short seconds. My friends around me saw the creature and gaped, someone screamed. Sakura saw it and jumped away instinctively.

Naruto did the same but far too slowly.

The monster swiped a fatal blow at him.

Blood.

The world slowly came back to me as I felt the cold ground meet my body.

"HINATA!!" Someone screamed.

Naruto stood above me, looking down in horror as my life slowly ebbed away. I hadn't even realized it but I had instinctively run forward to protect Naruto… I took the blow for him. I felt strangely at ease. I don't even feel the pain, or the wet blood.

The world dimmed.

I opened my eyes to see myself on the ground. Dead.

I feel horror as I realize that. Naruto is staring in disbelief at my body; everyone seems horrified, except for the monster. It's making a weird noise, I realize it's laughing, and looking at me. No, not the body on the ground, ME the now dead spirit Hinata.

The creature turns towards me, not interested in the living anymore. If I could sweat in panic I would but I'm too terrified.

It laughs. **"Good girl, sacrificing yourself for a boy. How heroic. Maybe you'll taste good."**

I felt sick as it approached. I could feel that I was severely mismatched and turned to retreat. Too late. Next thing I knew I was on the ground, pinned down by the monster above me. A claw on my head. I knew it was over.

I closed my eyes, thinking about my mother, trying to live up to my father's expectations, training, the academy, being paired with Kiba and Shino. Laughs, tears, hardships. Naruto…

I felt tears as I realized that I would never get to tell him how I felt.

I resign myself to my fate as the creature makes one final attack at me.

The monster pauses suddenly and jerks. I hear footsteps and open my eyes. Behind. I look up at the monster above me. It is also looking up at something. Something falls toward the monster.

It lets go of me and jumps away, the thing hits the ground. I numbly sit up as footsteps come toward me.

"Hey! You! Are you alright?" A voice asks. I look up to see a white haired boy with blue green eyes.

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Ok that's Chapter One!! Please make a review if you want more and any suggestions you think might make it better.


	2. Chapter 2 The strange cloud

Howdy HO! Well here's chappy twoz!

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**Hinata vision**

"Hey! You! Are you alright?" A voice asks. I look up to see a white haired boy with blue green eyes. I nod numbly at him. The boy looked past me and walked by without a second glance.

I get to my feet and turn around to also face the creature that just tried to kill me. I hadn't gotten much chance to take a closer look. A bleach white skull head, long clawed ligaments, a hole in its chest. I'd never seen anything like it. The creature hissed at us. Or at least at the person who interfered in it's lunch.

"Stay behind me." The boy said to me.

"H-Hai." I stuttered. I studied him. Close to my height, hair even lighter than Kakashi-sama's, dark blue green eyes, tanned skin, and furrowed brows. He reminded me a bit of Sasuke and Shikamaru in that he didn't seem like he smiled much.

Certainly nothing like my….Naruto-kun… I looked over my shoulder, back towards my friends for the first time since I died only a minute ago. Of course none of them could see me. I guessed they couldn't see the monster either now since they weren't looking this way or paying it any attention. Kiba is holding my cold body, looking in disbelief at it. Naruto is shaking with anger and sadness, Sakura is holding his hand trying to console him…

Shino is standing near by not moving. Everyone else is hanging on the fringes crying or trying to hold back tears. Neji-niisan is off on a mission with his team. Though things had gotten better between us I wondered how he would've reacted if he was here right now.

Strange that I can already think of my death so calmly now. I turned back to my current reality. I just notice, but the boy is holding a blade in his hands. I activate my byakugan. My vision is overwhelmed by the image of a dragon. I switch off the byakugan immediately and wait for a headache to go away.

_Just who is he? And what is going on?_ I wonder.

**Toushiro vision**

"Stay behind me." I barked at the girl, keeping my eyes on the hollow. Certainly a nasty looking one. And strong.

"H-hai." A soft voice stutters. It takes me a second to realize that it came from the girl.

I wonder how a soft voiced girl like this could become a ninja. The thought is boggling. Obviously the hollow killed her, but as a ninja couldn't she have at least dodged it? Either a weak ninja or a stupid one. I keep my eyes on the hollow. As always any wrong move could put someone in danger. I wondered how such a strong hollow had managed to be overlooked by the soul society for so long.

Not only that… but how did it manage to kill a living person? Several people saw it as well. It wasn't just because they're ninja. The hollow became a flesh and blood living being if only for a few seconds. I kept Hyourinmaru in ready position. Any sign of attack ready to be fought.

_'Strange.'_ I heard Hyourinmaru commented drily.

_'What is?'_ I mentally asked.

_'Don't you notice something off about the girl?'_

_'The girl? If you haven't noticed I can't afford to be distracted about some dead spirit.'_

_'Some dead spirit?'_ Hyourinmaru chuckled. '_Just wait til later.'_

I let the conversation end though I had a few more questions. I hear laughing. It's the hollow.

"What's so funny?" I ask gripping my zanpakto tighter.

**"You."** A voice behind me hisses. I turn my head to see another hollow behind me.

_How'd I not sense it?! _I question staring at the new arrival. The girl also looks at it surprise.

**"Now, Mr. Reaper… even though you are strong…"** The second hollow hisses**"…how can you protect a new spirit from two of us at once? Even you must realize…"** It pauses for a breath again,**"…that we are stronger than you originally….gave credit for."**

I pause for a second and ask. "What do you want?"

The first hollow hisses.** "How about a deal?"**

The girl is looking at the nearby hollow with revulsion. Not surprising though.

**Hinata vision**

I looked at the boy again._ Mr. Reaper?? Who is he?_ I examine the second monster, despite the instinct to try to not attract attention. It isn't as big as the first one but even uglier. It too has a skull head, but its body is twisted, especially its neck. Its spine is visible and like the other there is a hole in its midsection. It reeked of rotten meat, and its huge feet were only knobs covered in rags. Despite its sorry appearance I felt terrified of it.

"A deal?" The boy asked coldly.

**"Yessss."**

I shook as the second creature slowly turned its head toward me, neck twirling back and forth, spinning its head. I could hear the spine cracking sickeningly.

**"You go back to…your headquarters and let us go. We… won't kill anyone else here. Both win."** It rasped. I felt a chill inside me. I didn't like where this was going.

The white haired boy glanced at me. "And the girl?"

Pause.

The creature's chuckles gurgled as they came out of the mask and I felt my knees shake. A horrible disgusting fear filled me.

_I…no… how can this be happening?! Just this morning I was training with my father and saying good morning to my little sister Hanabi. Yesterday I was just talking with my friends and looking forward to today! This can't be real! After everything I've been through…how can I just become some monster's food?! _ I felt like falling to the ground. Wanting to scream and cry. To wring my hair out. Go insane. Anything to not face this. I'm such a coward. I thought I became stronger, I was going to prove I had grown. That I was worthy to be called a Hyuuga, a brave kunoichi. And yet! My shoulders shook.

"No deal!" The words rang in my ears. I looked up in surprise at the boy.

**Toushiro vision****

The hollow chuckled, the sound gurgled in a sickeningly horrid way. I felt instant disgust toward these beasts. There's no way I'm-

_'You always could…'_ Hyourinmaru's voice mumbled in my head.

_'What?!'_ I turn my anger toward my zanpakto. _'What are you saying?'_

Hyourinmaru's voice had the sound of a shrug. _'Well, really the option is there. As you said before that girl's 'just another dead spirit'. Besides these two hollow are odd.'_

I ignored my zanpakto's sound reason. I look over at the girl, for once a good look. Short dark hair that was indigo on the highlights, pale skin, light lavender grey eyes. A baby faced girl. Her eyes were locked in shock on the second hollow. I could see her shoulders shaking, knees knocking. How anyone could have let such a fragile girl become a ninja was beyond me. Her eyes looked full of sadness. I knew then that I couldn't do such a heartless thing. Not to her.

I looked back at the first hollow and glare at it. "No deal!" I yelled. "I refuse to play your games."

The first hollow snickered. **"So be it."** A black cloud engulfed the two hollow and I felt strong pressures from them. These weren't ordinary hollow. Far from normal.

But they don't look like any of the higher level hollow. What exactly is going on here?

**Hinata vision**

**"So be it."**

A black mist surrounds the two monsters. I felt like gagging, the air felt thick and I couldn't breathe. The first monster starts attacking the silver haired boy, but the second stays put. I look at it in confusion. Just sitting there… what are those mists anyway?

"Byakugan.' I command and look at the two monsters in horror. There is a massive amount of energy being stored in them. And it's building.

The second creature eyes glow and it vanishes. I search in confusion before I realize that it's still there. It's in the air. The only reason I realized was because my byakugan could see the same whisps of energy hanging in the air, silently moving toward the silver haired boy.

**Toushiro vision**

The hollow darted forward again to strike at me. Before I could even swipe at it, it ran backward out of range. Annoying.

It wasn't necessary to use my zanpakto's abilities. Besides, I wanted to capture one and try to question it. There was something fishy about what's going on here.

I ducked as the hollow tried to rip off my head. My eyes flicked unconsciously to the side. The hollow with the twisted neck was gone. No spirit pressure from it anymore. I hadn't realized it had gone. But why did it leave? I re focused on my fight.

_'Hmmm…' _Hyourinmaru mumbled,_ 'Why did the hollow leave. This is certainly strange.'_

I agreed._ 'The fact that even our services were needed to take care of this hollow is one thing, but this whole situation gets more and more-'_

I felt a presence and turned to see the girl right behind me.

"Watch out!" She said and grabbed my arm. A shadow fell on us and I looked up in time to see the second hollow appear out of thin air. It was close enough for me to see its yellow eyes clearly. I wrapped a free arm around the girl's waist and dodged the hollow's attack.

I landed a few feet away. The two hollow followed us with their eyes. I was about to let go of the ninja girl when Hyourinmaru glowed in my hand. I stared in shock as it changed to shikai by itself. Normally I'd have to recite a phrase to get it to do that. It'd never change without me telling me it to.

_'Hyourinmaru?'_ I asked it mentally._ 'Why…?'_

_'It wasn't me.' _Hyourinmaru stated flatly._ 'The energy just came to me, I didn't choose to.'_

Didn't choose to? If I didn't have Hyourinmaru shift, and it didn't decide to either. Then who else could have done it??

**"TSSSK."** I looked up at the hollows. **"This is getting…prolonged too far." **The hollow rasped.

The second hollow's neck twisted to the right. **"Let's end it now."**

I scowled and stepped in front of the girl. This matter would have to wait until later.

**Hinata vision**

**'Let's end it now.' **The second monster hissed.

The boy grimaced and let go of my waist, moving between me and the monsters. I could still feel where his hand was a minute ago. The thought made my face get hot. I quickly dispelled the train of thought. I barely knew this person, besides even though he was protecting me, who knows what he was going to do afterward.

I re-activated my byakugan and looked at the two monsters. The two energies inside monsters were swirling together. They disappeared in a cloud and the two clouds began to swirl together. I watched as a new monster emerged from the cloud.

"Th-they combined?" I stuttered. This day was getting stranger and stranger.

"Nice observation." The boy scoffed.

I looked at his sword. A minute ago it glowed, but all that happened was that a crescent shaped blade was added on it. I felt instant worry.

I flinched as the monster took a step toward us. I blinked and the silver haired boy was gone, only to reappear above the monster's head. He swiped down at it but the monster grabbed the blade and flung him away. The boy landed on his feet with ease and rushed back in to fight.

_Am I really this useless?_

The monster raised its hand as the boy attacked it again. A stream of the dark mist came out and knocked him away yet again. The boy landed on his feet but started hacking. He doubled over and I watched, frozen, as the monster stalked towards him.

**Toushiro vision**

_Dammit._ The hollow blocked my attacks one after another. I'd have to switch to my bankai if this kept up. I jumped into the air, yet again, to try to get at its head. It raised a hand, I expected another block so I lowered my zanpakto to slice through it. But instead a stream of black shot towards me and I was blinded. I felt the hollow smack me away like a fly. Instinctively I moved to land on my feet. My eyes burned and ached. It felt like my lungs were filled with concrete. I couldn't breathe. I coughed harder and harder, trying to get some air flowing to no avail. My whole body felt like lead, I became unaware of my surroundings and hunched over.

_'Hitsugaya! Look up!'_ Hyourinmaru voice rang in the back of my head.

I looked up immediately, forgetting my lack of air, to see a pair of glowing eyes._ 'Shit!'_ I cursed in my head. I willed for Hyourinmaru to come up to defend but I felt weak from not being able to breathe. I cursed as the hollow raised a fist.

**_THWAK!_** My eyes bugged out as a rock hit hollow's head. The both of us looked to see that ninja girl. Even in my position I could see that her knees were trembling.

_What is wrong with that her?_

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_OKZ! That's the end of Chapter 2. OMG!! What will happen to Hina-chan now? Does she have a plan up her sleeve or is she gong to kill them both?! …wait nevermnd they're already dead…but still you know what I mean. -_-' Review, give suggestions, and hope you enjoyed this chapter! ^^_


	3. Chapter 3 To the soul Society

_HEYAZ!!! Chappo 3! I worked hard on this. Hope you enjoy._

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**Hinata Vision  
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_TWACK!_

The monster looked at me slowly. I held another rock in my hand, gripping it tightly. **'You little…'** It grumbled angrily. I decided that throwing a rock wasn't such a good idea after all. It turned around to face me and started stomping my way. I took a step back.

The monster roared making me jump. **'How dare you, you little bug!! I'll squish you into the ground!'**

"Hey!"

I looked upward to see the silver haired boy. The monster looked up too.

"Didn't anyone tell you," His sword sliced diagonally across its head,"not to look away from the enemy?"

It let out a final scream and I watched in amazement as it turned to ice. It slowly crumbled apart as the boy walked over to me. I stared wide eyed at him. _How did he do that?!_ I was about to ask when he hit me across the head with his sword sheathe several times.

"IDIOT! DOLT! BAKA! What kind of ninja are you?! A_ ROCK_?! Why the hell did you throw a rock?! What were you thinking?!" The silver hared boy yelled, directing fiery eyes at me. Obviously the wrong answer would result in more beatings.

I felt my face get hot. "We-well I didn't have anything else and it seemed like a good idea a second ago." Resulting in another whack.

"Seriously a rock…" He glared at me again and I shielded my eyes with my hands immediately to keep from seeing myself get whacked. But instead of a whack I felt a hand patting my head. I moved my hands to see him looking away.

"Thanks anyway for trying." I heard him mumble. His hand felt warm on my head. I slipped out from under his hand and went around looking at him.

"What are you doing?!" He moved away and I followed after him.

"I want to see what kind of face you're making!" I laughed and chased him as he turned away again.

"Cut that out! Stupid!" He barked again. I laughed, having fun, and grabbed the sleeve of his kimono. My foot skirted on the ground and I fell down. I landed on my knees, though on top of the boy.

**Toushiro vision**

I felt the girl grab my sleeve and tug on it forcefully. I turned to yell and ended up being knocked down. My head hit the ground and I saw stars.

Hyourinmaru's voice cackled with hysteria. '_Smooth kid!'_ And started laughing again.

I was going to retort when I realized that there was something on me. I opened my eyes to see the ninja girl looking down at me, while ON me. Her face was bright red. Her legs felt nice against me. I snapped out of my reverie when Hyourinmaru started laughing again.

"Stupid. Get off." I grumbled now annoyed.

"A-ah! Sorry!" She squeaked and got off of me, only to sit back down a foot away. I sat up and rubbed the back of my aching head. I still felt a little dizzy from that hollow's attack.

I remembered my job and stood up. "Hey get up. Time for you to go." I said waving my hand.

She stood up. "Go where?"

I thought for a second. "I guess what you call 'heaven'. More technically it's called the 'soul society'. Anything you want to do before I send you on your way? See some family members, loved ones, etc?" I explained to her. She bit her lip and looked over her shoulder. I followed her gaze. A group of people were placing her body onto a stretcher, covering it with a sheet. A people were sobbing and covering their eyes. I wondered if they were her friends. It took me a second to realize she was only looking specifically at one guy. A blond with blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. A girl was holding onto him and sobbing into his shoulder. I glanced at the ninja girl, she was looking longingly at them. She turned away from the scene.

"I'm fine. I'd like to go now." She mumbled. "But can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." I said absentmindedly, lifting Hyourinmaru up.

She looked at me with her pale lavender eyes. "What's your name?"

I paused for a second. I had expected her to ask about the soul society or something like that. "…Toushiro Hitsugaya. You?"

She smiled for the first time. "Hyuuga Hinata."

"Well… Hyuuga-san. It's time to say goodbye. Though, maybe we'll meet again." I shrugged, though the idea made me hopeful. I guess this girl was more interesting than I thought.

"Sure." She said. I stamped her head with the end of my sword, sending her to the soul society. I took one last look around the ninja village, satisfied, and then returned as well.

**Hinata vision**

I felt his sword touch my head. A dizzying sensation came over me. I blinked several times, willing away a bright light left over and rubbed my eyes. I looked around. A thin alley filled with trash, dirty, unclean. I looked to my left and saw people passing by, unaware of my presence. It was nothing like Konoha.

I walked down the narrow space out into the bright light. Many adults were wandering around and buying things from carts. Some from stores. A bunch of children ran around me, and a little girl ran straight into me and fell down. It somewhat reminded me of how Hanabi would slip and fall when she was still really little.

I bent down and reached out a hand. "You okay?" I asked her.

A dirty face surrounded by blond hair looked up at me; her kimono was stained and torn. I wondered how long she had kept it. She looked at my hand uncertainly then put her hand into mine. I smiled at her. I was pulling her to her feet when a man ran around the corner and pointed at us.

"THEIVES! You there! Don't let those children get away." He shouted to me pointing at the girl whom I just helped up.

The people around us stopped. The little girl looked panicked. She let go of my hand and ran toward the crowd.

"No!" She cried. "It wasn't me. _She_ made me do it. She ordered us to steal from him!" She pointed a dirty finger at me. "Why else would she touch me?!"

"Is that true?"

"Yeah! She's mean to us and hits us when we don't so what she says." A little boy added.

Spun on my heel to look at them. "Th-that's not true. I only just got here!" I looked at the faces in the crowd, looking for a sympathetic one. There was not one.

"Stop lying witch!" A little boy shouted angrily at me. He put an arm around another child who began to sob. "Look what she did to my brother!" And he rolled up the boy's sleeve to show a bruise that could have been easily got by just falling down.

A roar of disapproval rang through the growing crowd. I could see hatred in their eyes. The little girl I helped smirked at me, and the children disappeared into the crowd. Next thing I knew something hit my head. I looked down to see a stone. How ironic.

"Get her!"

"Stone her!"

"Let's make her pay!"

Fear trickled into my veins. My day kept getting worse and worse. The crowd slowly made their way toward me. I felt hands grab my shoulders and push me down. I let out a squeak. I struggled but someone punched my head and I stopped. Tears of pain sprung into my eyes.

"Cut off her hands!"

"Gouge her eyes out!"

"_Witch_!"

Someone grabbed my wrist and held my arm out. I looked up to see a man holding an ax with one hand and my wrist with the other.

"Hold still, else I might just chop off the whole thing." He giggled. My blood turned cold. Cheers erupted as they saw me getting what they thought was my just desserts.

"This isn't right." I found myself saying. "Let go of me, you have it all wrong!"

The ax swung down.

"STOP IT!!" I screamed, my tears fell. A wind erupted around me and sent the people holding me fly away.

_'Fufufufufu.'_ I heard a voice giggle, aware of a new presence. I opened my eyes to see a huge bird right above me. _'About time you awakened me.'_ The voice was in my head I realized. A smooth and feminine voice.

"Awakened…? What… who are you?" I asked aloud.

Another giggle. _'Just call me Miharu.'_

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OKZ! That's it's for chappo 3! Hope you liked it. If you have any suggestions, or comments please review. Liked it? REVIEW IT!!!! lol super short chapter. xD felt like cliffhanging it.


	4. Chapter 4 First night

_Heya guys! Here's chapter 4!!! ^^' took foreva! enjoy!_

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**Hinata vision**

"What…who are you?"

Another giggle. _'Just call me Miharu. Now let's help you get you out of this mess.' _The bird landed on the ground and looked at me.

"Eh? H-how are you going to do that?"

'_Me? Fufufufu. No, you're going to do it not me.' _Miharu must have seen my confused expression. _'Just do what I tell you okay? Close your eyes and think of a place you think would be far away from here.'_

I obeyed and immediately a field filled with farmers popped into my head. I opened my mouth to say something but I heard the voice in my head again. _'Open your eyes.'_

I opened them. A man was gawking at me from the ground. I looked around puzzled. A wheat field filled with many people surrounded me. All of them looking at me.

"W-where did you come from?!" A man asked me, with a touch of surprise and fear in his eyes.

_'fufufufu. I think they think you're a witch or some sort of freak the way you popped out of thin air! Better make up a story quick dear!' _Miharu laughed. I didn't think was so funny.

"U-uh… I was just sent here… is this 'heaven'?" I said as convincing as I could. Though I did wonder if this was what Toushiro-san had called heaven. This certainly wasn't my idea of it.

The faces of the farmers softened to relief. The same man laughed. "I guess you could call it that. You must be awfully tired, miss, how about coming down to the shed house and get something to eat?"

I laughed for the first good thing to happen to me today. "Hai!" I followed behind the farmer to the 'shed house' as he called it and he told me some things he considered 'need to know' priority for living in the soul society. One, find a role as fast as possible, Two, get a place to live so you don't end up like the slums peoples, Three, know your place, and finally, you always are to be willing to do your share.

He said that when you're sent to the soul society if you don't pay attention you often forget about things when you were in the living world. When you died in the soul society, you end up being reborn back in the living world. You do not age very fast either.

"Ah, and here we are. Hahaha, funny how you don't notice how time passes when you talk, right?" He laughed. His 'shed house' was a large barn like structure near the trees. He pushed open the door and we walked inside. There were two long tables inside, a window to a kitchen along one wall, and there was lots of hay on the ground. Two children played in a corner and some women walked between the tables, setting up dining ware. There was an earthy smell.

One of the women noticed us. "Yamada! How many times must I tell you not to try to sneak in here to eat early?!"

Yamada laughed and pointed at me. "Kojimaaa, I'm only here to feed a new soul." He started to make goo goo eyes.

Kojima looked at me. "A new soul, eh?" She smiled. "C'mere dear, let's get you a welcome meal. How old are you?" She put an arm around me and started leading me away.

"Ok. Since I'm already here how about-" Yamada began.

"OUTSIDE! You'll eat when everyone else does you free loader!" Kojima yelled at him. He ran back outside and closed the door behind him.

She turned back to me with an angel smile. "So like I was asking. How old are you?"

"Th-thirteen." I stuttered. She reminded me of Sakura, with much more deadly mood swings.

"Thirteen? Really? You have such a baby face." She tilted my chin up. "Anyway let's get you a snack 'fore dinner. You must be tired."

"Hai."

She led me into the kitchen and gave me an apple to munch on. Several other women walked up to me and started asking me questions, like my name, my family (they loved how dramatic it was), when my birthday was. All kinds of things. Afterwards I helped with the final preparations for the dinner and we summoned the field workers.

Apparently the family who owned the land was too lazy to take care of it so they rented out the land to a group of farmers. One thing lead to another and now a whole bunch of them live and work here. Many of them newcomers like me who stumbled along. They live a modest life, not that I minded. It was kind of refreshing.

Hours later after being introduced to the 'field family', as they called themselves, I fell into a bed that one of the women had put together for me.

_'Enjoying yourself?_' Miharu asked as I sank into my warming blankets.

_'Yes.'_ I answered.

_'You still haven't developed my form yet.'_ She sighed.

_'Form?'_

_'Yes, what I shall be when you make me a zanpakto. Your heart still has not completed me.'_

I thought for a second. '_What's a zanpakto?' _I yawned. '_And what are you?'_

_'A zanpakto is the sword that a shinigami, commonly called Soul Reapers, carry. I am a spirit that lives in a zanpakto, the zanpakto's essence if you will.' _Miharu explained. _'Like Toushiro-san's, remember?'_

I blinked._ 'Toushiro-san was a shinigami???'_

_'Duh.'_

I thought about this for a second. That explained why he saved me, and how he was able to do all that…cool stuff.

Miharu snickered. _'You think Toushiro-san is cool.'_ She sang.

I blushed. _'I-I do not! … wait! No he is cool…but… not in… oh forget it!!'_ I pulled my blanket above my head.

I heard Miharu laugh. '_Make sure you think on my form while you're asleep.'_

Hmm…. Zanpakto..form……….dragon… bird……maybe with………………

**Toushiro vision**

"Why do I have to do this?" I groaned as we made our way to the specified rukongai.

My lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto smiled at me. "Because this is the sector you're assigned to and if the ruckus isn't investigated who knows what might happen. Remember the "Ichigo" incident. Not that it was a bad thing but the only reason it got that far was because it wasn't-"

"Yeah, yeah, no one took him seriously so he ended up making us look stupid. I know, I know." I interrupted.

She blinked at me. "What's crawled up your butt and died? Ever since you came back from your last hollow killing mission you've been really cranky."

I thought of Hyuuga Hinata-chan but pushed it to the back of my mind. _I'm on Soul Reaper duty right now, I can't be thinking of one average soul so much._ "I have no idea what you're talking about." I said to her coldly and walked ahead of her. I heard her sigh but she didn't say anything.

We finally came upon the building we had arranged the meeting. A man from my squad division stood at attention in front of the door. He saw us coming. "Captain Toushiro." He said politely. I nodded at him and entered with Rangiku right behind me.

In the room was a group of people, many common folk stood inside along the walls. The group I sent out earlier to deal with the rabble sat at the table, looking meek.

"Suwaru, what's going on here?" I asked the leader of the group.

"Captain!" Suwaru stood up and gave me a courteous bow. "We don't quite know. They keep going on and on about things and won't settle don't long enough for us to get a clear story."

I looked at the rukongai villagers. This information didn't surprise me in the least. Rukongai villagers tended to be a noisy and brutish bunch. They were cruel and harsh, they wouldn't even give a single piece of bread to a starving child no matter how much food they had. Even the children quickly grew into liars and thieves. I hoped Hyuuga-chan had enough sense to get out of the rukongai quickly; people like her were too soft for such living.

I walked to the end of the table to the seat reserved for me. Rangiku stood beside me. "Okay, let's start at the beginning. What happened?" I asked one of the group members.

Before the man could even speak the villagers erupted into a frenzy chaos, all trying to tell their version.

"Shut UP!" I barked at them, exerting my spiritual pressure. They immediately closed their mouths. Spirit pressure could be so useful sometimes. I turned back to the group member. "Continue."

The man looked at the people along the walls for a hesitant second. "Well, what we've been able to get so far is that a child beater was about to be reprimanded when they assaulted them with-"

"Child beater?" My lieutenant interrupted him.

"Yes. That's what they told us. Anyway they were attacked by a monster and then the beater vanished. Or something along those lines."

_'Monster?_' I wondered._ 'What could that mean?'_

"That's not very specific." I mumbled.

The group captain sighed. "We've been trying our best so far but we just can't get them to settle down."

I looked over at the rukongai villagers and glared. "That won't be a problem anymore." I said coldly. They seemed to get the message and a few gulped.

"Alright. Let's start with the cart merchant again." The group leader said out loud, motioning for a man to come over. A thin, wiry man walked over and sat at a chair in front of the table. "Start from the beginning again, would you?"

The man nodded. "I was minding my own business, selling bread like always at the same place, when a child ran up and kicked me in the shin! I was gonna smack 'em but he ran and I began to chase after 'em when I heard a noise and there was 'em lil girl taking meh bread." I heard Rangiku yawn behind me. I stomped on her foot and she straightened up. "So iz go after the chillins and they runs. Thought I lost 'em when I saw that the girl fell down and that someone was hoisting her up and I sayz to get the thieving lil brat."

One of the group members who was writing down the account looked up. "What happened next?"

The man grinned, happy to have the spotlight. "Well the girl says that the person helpin her made her do it, poor sprout, and them uther chillins show their bruises and that got me really fired up. I mean, using a child to steal, awful b*tch should be doing it herself! Didn't see what happened after that cuz the others got to her first. I thought that I wasn't gonna get my bread back and headed back to the cart." He ended his account and was sent away.

"What do you think, captain?" A group member asked me. I thought for a second.

"I think we need to ask someone who was there when the 'monster' attacked." I told them. The group captain nodded, asking for the next 'witness' as he called it. A man walked to the chair and sat down.

"I'll tell you what happened after. The children revealed the girl who forced them to steal things for her, poor kids, and made everyone mad. I could see everyone thought my way so I ran up and grabbed the girl and held her still, right? And she starts trying to run away-"

"I punched her!!" I burly man boasted holding up what I surmised was the punching arm. The rukongai cheered and patted him on the back. I glared at the crowd. I couple looked my way and zipped their mouths quickly. The boasting man also noticed my expression and he hung his head.

"Do not speak if it's not your turn." I growled, annoyed. They nodded and looked away. "Continue."

"Y-yeah." The man gulped. "Anyway so he punched her, get her to stop, y'know. Then my buddy gets an ax and holds out her arm, y'know to chop it off and-"

"You were going to chop her arm off?!" My lieutenant asked in surprise.

He shrugged. "Well a thief gets what a thief deserves. Get rid of the arm that caused the trouble." A group member glanced at me with wide eyes at this backwards logic. "Like I was saying the girl sees this and starts putting up another fuss and just when she's about to get her reward…well. Dunno what just happened. Felt like something threw me away. Just blasted!"

"Blasted?" The writing group member looked up again.

"Yup. Like I was blown away. MY feet left the ground! And when I got back up there was this gigantic flying monster in the air and then it was gone, looked like some kind of bird!" He snapped his fingers to show his point.

Several other rukongai agreed with him.

_'A bird? Could it be a hollow?' _I wondered.

_'Doesn't sound like a hollow to me, besides they can't come here.'_ Hyourinmaru said secretly. I detected something in Hyourinmaru's voice.

_'Do you have any idea?'_ I asked.

_'Yes, but I think I'll let you figure it out.'_

_'Hyourinmaruuuu…'_

I heard the zanpakto laugh._ 'I'll give you some hints: She has lavender eyes, you met her recently, and you have a crush on her.'_

_'I do not have a crush on… Hyuuga-chan? You think it was-'_

_'Ask them what the girl looked like.'_ Hyourinmaru teased.

I huffed. "What did this girl look like?"

The man thought for a second. "Dark short hair, light colored eyes, pale-!" He cut off, I was glaring at him. I stood up and held my hand out to the side near my head.

"About this high?" I asked.

"Y-yes?"

I felt like smacking someone. Not sure if I wanted to hit this man, the burly one, or Hyuuga-chan. I heard Hyourinmaru laughing at my reactions.

"And where are the children that were beaten?" I questioned.

The man pointed to a group of kids who were looking wide eyed at me. I walked over to them.

"Where did this girl hit you?" I stared them down. A little boy put his hand on the shoulder of another child.

"H-here. She hit my brother here." He showed me a bruise on his brother's arm.

"That looks like a scrape to me. There's even scabs from the ground on it." I quickly disproved it. The boys stared dumbfounded at me. "Anyone else has an injury that was actually caused by this girl?"

None of them answered. "And can you tell me exactly HOW LONG she's been forcing you to steal for her?" They looked at a little girl.

"I-I don't know. A long time!" She said defiantly.

"Really?" I stooped down to her height and stared her down. "You wouldn't lie to me would you? I hate children when they lie to me. Now answer me this, how long had you known her before you started these accusations?"

She shivered and looked away. Mumbling something…

"What was that?"

"A-A few seconds…" She admitted. The rukongai people gaped at the little girl. I ignored them and walked out of the building.

"We're through here, let's go." I barked as I left. My subordinates scrambled their things together to follow me out. Rangiku ran to catch up with me.

"Captain! Where are you going? We still haven't-"

"Found out what happened? I already know who it was; just have to find her now." I informed my lieutenant walking on. I ordered the group to go back and organize another to begin searching for Hyuuga Hinata. With any luck I might just have a reunion with the trouble making girl.

_'Looking forward to it?'_ Hyourinmaru teased.

_'Shut up.'_

**Hinata vision**

"Aa-CHOO!" I sniffed. I had sat up when I sneezed. I rubbed my eyes lazily and looked around wondering what time it was. I smelled something nice and walked out of my small room toward the smell. I came up to the door of the kitchen where there was lots of noise. I opened the door.

"Ah, Hinata-chan. Good morning, you're up early." Kojima chimed spotting me. "Since you're awake want to help us with breakfast?"

I paused and looked around slowly at the kitchen. All of the women smiled at me and waited for my answer. I wondered if this was what many families were like.

"Sure." I answered. I needed to do my best to earn my keep. I helped with the cooking and setting out the plates.

One of the older women sighed. "Hee hee, seeing Hina-chan reminded me of when I first came here. I still remember my shinigami." She giggled. "He was such a good looking one."

Kojima laughed. "You've only been here two years, stop making it sound like you're old."

"Can't I look back on things in a reminiscing mood without being lectured?!" She barked making everyone laugh.

Another woman put a hand on her cheek and sighed. "I know what you mean; I remember my shinigami too…" She paused. "He was butt ugly." This caused a fit of hysteria at the poor girl's expense.

That got started a conversation from woman to woman about the shinigami's that sent them over, what they looked like, looks, and also about how they died in the first place.

"What about you Hinata-chan?" Kojima asked me. "What was your shinigami like?"

I thought for a second. "'He was short." This made them laugh.

"What else? What'd he look like?"

I closed my eyes for a second and his face flashed back into my mind. "Silver hair, tanned skin, blue green eyes."

They paused.

One of the women looked at me. "Hinata-chan, was he wearing a white kimono?"

"Yes?" I replied. They shrieked and went into a fit of hysterical giggles.

A girl grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me."Hinata do you know who that was! Your shinigami was Captain Toushiro Hitsugaya! Captain of the 10th division in the Gotei 13!!!"

"…Is that good?" I asked.

"GOOD?! He is the youngest ever to become a captain, he's a genius!!"

"He's super smart!"

"Super awesome!"

"You're so lucky Hina-chan you got to meet him! I'd do anything to just see a glimpse of one of the captains. Even a lieutenant."

They blabbed on about how they wished they could meet a captain and which one they'd like to meet the most until duty called and we had to go back to work.

_'He's really that strong?'_ I wondered.

_'Obviously, I can just look back at your memories to see how talented he was.'_ Miharu tisked._ 'Oh well, fun memory, eh? You can tell all the people you meet that you were saved by one of THE captains. You'll be the center of attention for at least 15 minutes.'_

_'I guess...'_

_'And you could also tell them about how you were on top of him too!'_ Miharu cheered. I blushed.

_'Uwaah. Don't remind me of that!!'_

_'Why?'_

_'Because it was embarrassing!'_

_'No it was funny.'_

_'No it wasn't!'_ I started ignoring Miharu's teasing and rushed to help out the other women.

* * *

_That's it for chapter 4! Like before make a review, comment on the story so far, give advice or suggestions to make it better, etc._


	5. Chapter 5 Hello again

Heya chappo FIVE!! Thanks for the awesome feedback guys! ^^ I'm so fired up! YAAA! (^O^)/ Enjoy the chapterrrr!!!

* * *

**Toushiro vision**

"Captain Hitsugayaaa! Wait up!" One of the soul reapers who was in my group called, trying to keep up with my pace. "We've been walking for hours, can't we rest a little?"

"Huh? What are you talking about, I feel fine." I replied. I could hear them huffing behind me.

"Captaiiiin, stop being mean!" One cried panting.

I rolled my eyes. "Ok, ok. I was just kidding. Let's stop at least until the sun rises." They all sighed in relief and flopped onto the grass beside the road. It had been a day since I heard about Hinata's run in with the residents of the Rukongai. My lieutenant and I had split into two groups to go look for her for possible recruitment.

_'Sure, sure. Keep telling yourself that's why you're running your group ragged.'_ Hyourinmaru said.

I twitched at that.

_'Heh, you're not denying it this time?'_

_'No, because I am looking for her for the sake of checking her condition as well.'_ I heard Hyourinmaru sigh and mumble something about how I'm deluding myself but I ignored him.

I heard something and looked toward the road that we were just on. I motioned for my group to be quiet. A minute later a small group of men walked by us, not seeing us in the dark. I watched them as they disappeared back into the dark.

"Wonder where they're going." One reaper mumbled quietly.

"Who knows." Another shrugged and lied back down on the grass.

**Hinata vision**

I had only been there for less than three days and I was already used to the routine there. In the morning the women got up early to make breakfast (only sometimes since in the Soul Society you didn't NEED to eat that badly but they did it anyway since they liked the taste of things), the men woke up an hour or two later, ate, then went out to work. The women took care of the children, make dinner, cleaned, or from time to time, help in the fields. As my acceptance into the family they even gave me a new light blue kimono to wear.

I shielded my eyes from the sun as I walked out the shed house. Yamada noticed me and waved. "Hey Hina-chan where are you off to?"

I smiled at him. "Just trying to find something to do."

"If you're not doing anything then how about we stroll around in a field of flowers and-" He was interrupted as an apple hit him.

Kojima scowled out the shed house door. "Yamada! Keep flirting and no dinner for a week! Get to work you lazy idiot!" Yamada rubbed his head and pouted. "Hinata-san, could you fetch some water from the creek real quick?" She asked me. I said sure and she told me where a bucket was and which way was the stream.

I found the bucket and walked past the fields toward the nearby stream, on the way waving at my fellow field family members. I walked under the tree canopy and listened for the creek.

_'Head left.'_ Miharu directed. Apparently Miharu specialties were water and wind. She had bragged yesterday that she could find even an underground stream no matter how deep it was. I followed her directions and within two minutes found the creek. I dropped the bucket in and slowly pulled it back up so as not to spill the water in it.

I was heading back when I noticed that my field family was making anxious glances at the shed house.

"What's wrong?" I asked a nearby man. He looked up at me and nodded at the shed house.

"A group of strange men just walked up a moment ago and are inside. You're heading back right? Keep your head down and try not to attract attention, who knows what they want." I nodded and walked cautiously until I heard loud, manly laughing from inside. I snuck inside to see a small band of men sitting at the tables, eating and drinking. I caught the smell of dirt and sweat. I made my way into he kitchen.

"Who are they and what's going on?" I asked a woman.

She smiled at me. "Don't fret Hina-chan. They're just a group of wanderers. They want to eat a bit, stay a night, and leave tomorrow. See them all the time around here."

Another girl nodded at me. "Yup, just last week about 12 of them peddlers spent a night here. Don't worry, they usually don't cause trouble."

"Okay." I replied. Though, I still felt a bit nervous around them. I tried to stay in the kitchen as much as possible, every once in a while having to bring out drinks, or set up for dinner and get things ready. During dinner I was playing with the kids that had already finished, saying that I wasn't hungry, when Kojima asked me to take out a pitcher of water.  
I picked up the pitcher and headed out. Everyone was laughing and telling stories. A pair of men, one from the field family and one a guest, were arm wrestling, much to the enjoyment to most everyone. I walked back and forth, filling cups. Answering the calls for more.

"Hey, girl, bring me some more water would you?" One yelled over the noise. I looked at him.

"Didn't I just fill your cup?"

His eyes widened. "No you didn't. You must be mistaking me for one of the others."

I could have sworn I had already but refilled his cup anyway. I felt a hand on my butt and I gasped. He smirked with a devilish look in his eyes.

I shrieked and slapped him. The noise died out and everyone looked at us. I clutched the hand that hit him.

"What's going on over here?" Kojima asked, walking over.

He made an insulted face and looked at her. "This…GIRL just hit me for no reason!!"

My mouth dropped open. _'I'm getting blamed for something again?!'_

"No I didn't. He groped my butt!" I pointed at him.

He glared at me. "Stop lying you whore! I would never do that." He turned his head to look at Kojima. "Is this how you people treat guests? I'm outright insulted. Why in the world would I hit on a shrimpy kid like her? She's obviously lying! Right?" The men who were traveling with him all agreed loudly.

Kojima looked back and forth at us. She obviously didn't know who to believe. "…Hinata-chan, are you lying?" She asked. My mouth dropped open.

"Why do you think I'm lying?! I've been here three days, you know I wouldn't do that!!" I yelled at her. She still looked like she didn't quite believe me. Several other members of my farm family also had doubtful looks.

_'You don't have a strong case. He's right you know you are a tiny girl, and you've only known them for 3 days. Of course they wouldn't be absolutely sure.' _Miharu reasoned, I guess trying to calm me down. I understood her point of view and it made sense. But I was still shocked that they would take a stranger's words over mine.

One of the women came over and put her hands on my shoulders. "Hinata-chan, maybe you should apologize for hitting him."

I stared at her. I looked at him too. His face was one of anger but I could see in his eyes that he was enjoying this. I looked at my farm family in desperation but none of them would look me in the eye. I wanted to scream.

"I'm sorry… for slapping you." I choked out the words and bowed my head to him. I felt sick.

"You think a 'sorry' will be enough? You damaged my face you little shrimp!" I felt a hand grab my hair and yank. I squeaked in pain. "You raised a hand to me and even tried to insult my good name by calling me a pervert! Such actions can't be made up for a simple apology!"

"W-what do you want her to-?" Kojima asked.

"I want an even trade. She attacked me and tried to sully me. Only thing that's fair is for her to do whatever I want until I am satisfied." He pulled on my hair and I bit my lip to keep from making a noise.

The farm family didn't say anything so he must've taken it as a go ahead. He let go of my hair and I sank onto the floor.

"First off, kiss my feet!" He laughed. I gawked at him as his buddies cheered and hooted at the command.

I turned to look at Kojima. "K-kojima…" She looked at the man and turned her head. No one else would look at me. I felt a hand grip my head again and I was forced to look back at the awful person.

"Do it, shrimp!" I trembled slightly as there was no way out of this. I obeyed the order to the amusement of the guests.

"Next, massage them!" The men hooted at this. My shoulders shook as I did what I was ordered. Each order was more un-dignifying than the last.

"I think I am almost satisfied." He stated after a long and gruesome time. "Just one more thing." He grabbed my chin and lifted my face up. "Your final order is to kiss me." I felt vomit rise in my throat at the mere thought. He pulled me toward him and I felt my eyes beginning to get moist.

"Wait a minute! Hasn't she done enough already?!" I heard Yamada protest. Several others agreed with him.

"Just this last thing and then we'll be even." He argued.

"No! She's done more than enough leave her alone!" I heard a child yell a him.

"Shut up brat!" A man hit the child much to the astonishment of the farmers.

"Nakiri!"A woman screeched and ran over to the fallen kid.

"When she's through she's through, got it?!" Another man barked.

The farm family started to protest.

"Leave her alone!"

"Should have known Hina-chan wouldn't do that!"

"Leave now!"

"Hinata!" Yamada walked toward us. "Get up now, you don't have to-"

A man grabbed him and threw him on the ground. "Don't interfere!" He yelled kicking him.

"Yamada!" Kojima ran forward but another grabbed her.

Shouts of anger rang and the farm family tried to fight off the wanderers. I could tell they didn't stand a chance. I tried to stand but the pervert who started it all grabbed me. "You're not through yet, kiddo." I tried to shake him off to help the others to no avail.

_'No! Why am I so weak?!' _My head screamed.

_'Hinata do you really want to help them?' _Miharu asked me.

_'Of course I do!'_ I replied.

_'Then call my name and I will assist you.'_

I took a breath. "Miharu!"

A wind blew open the doors of the shed house and the man let go of my hand in surprise. A large bird appeared in front of me. Miharu spread her wings and a bright light blinded me for a second. It died down and I saw a sword levitating at arm's reach, I could tell it was Miharu. I grabbed it and I felt an energy flow through me.

_'Congratulations, Hinata, you have a zanpakto.'_ I heard Miharu laugh. I stared at the object for a minute until I remembered my situation. I looked up to see everyone staring at me. I turned to look at my harasser.

"So about those commands…" I smirked evilly and he trembled.

**Toushiro vision**

It was the fourth day since the search began. Once again my men were lounging around trying to catch their breaths.

_'We're going so slow!' _I grimaced.

Hyourinmaru chuckled. _'Stop pouting lover boy…did you feel that?'_

I turned my head. _'Yup.'_ I turned on my heel and took off down the road.

"C-captain Hitsugaya! Wait up!" They yelled and ran after me. I focused on the direction that I had felt the sudden release of spiritual pressure from. I ran out from under the trees and off the road through a field. I slowed down as I came up to a building. What made me stop wasn't that I got there. I stopped because of…

A man in his underwear had his arms tucked into his pits, squatting down like he was a duck.

"Now quack!!" A man hollered and the naked man obeyed. A crowd of people laughed hysterically at this.

"Am I almost done?!" The naked man cried.

"Not yet, not yet! Now get on your hands and knees and be a frog!" A woman laughed. The people snickered as he obeyed and became hopping around. They began laughing again when he made croaking noises. There was another group of men being forced to act like chickens nearby. My men finally caught up with me and also stared at the strange spectacle.

"What the hell…?" I muttered.

"Please let me stopppppp!!!" The frog man begged.

A man scratched his chin. "I dunno seems like not quite enough to me. What do you think Hina-chan?"

My eyes widened. I followed the man's gaze to see Hyuuga-chan. She was wearing a blue kimono and in her hand was a zanpakto. "Yeah he's through…with that. Next he can lick the outhouse floor." The people burst into hysterial laughter and started dragging their prisoner away.

My eyes were glued to Hyuuga-chan. It was dark but I could see a huge smile on her face as she surveyed their prisoners. She walked over to the bunch of children who were watching the chicken men and she whispered something into the ear of a child with a bruise on his face.

The kid turned to the men/chicken. "Stand on your heads!!" He called. The chicken men stopped their ground pecking and obeyed, falling on the ground and tumbling over each other, making the children laugh themselves to the point of not being able to breathe.

"C-captain…what's going on?" One of my men asked.

I motioned for them to stay there and started walking toward the group of children and Hyuuga-chan. The men trying to stand on their heads saw me first and stopped, wide eyed.

"Who told you to stop?!" A kid barked and was quickly jabbed by the kid next him.

Finally Hyuuga-chan turned and saw me. Her pale eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

"T-toushiro-san?!" She stuttered.

"Hello Hyuuga-chan. Nice to see you again."

**Hinata vision**

The men stopped trying to stand on their heads and just stopped and stared past us. A child barked at them. Then children looked behind them and stared.

_'What are they looking at?'_ I wondered and I turned around. What I saw made my heart skip a beat. Toushiro Hitsugaya was standing right behind me.

_'Hinata, you should say something about now.'_ Miharu urged me.

"T-toushiro-san?!" I stuttered.

_'I didn't mean that, but it'll work.'_ I heard Miharu sighed.

"Hello Hyuuga-chan. Nice to see you again." Toushiro greeted me, smiling, and I felt butterflies in my stomach. My face got hot. This had only ever happened when I was near Naruto, back when I was still alive. So why now?

"N-nice to see you too."

He raised an eyebrow and pointed at the wanderers. "What is going on here?"

I flushed. Just then my farm family came trooping around the corner with the pervert man when they saw Toushiro and halted.

Toushiro looked over at them. "Hello." He said. Their mouths dropped open at the famous shinigami.

The farmers gawked at Toushiro as we went back inside, a group of people came out of the shadows with him, we were bringing our prisoners of course, and we sat down to explain all that was going on.

"Could you start at when you first arrived please?" He instructed me. His blue green eyes watched me as I began. I told him about the girl that ran into me, how she accused me of forcing her to steal, the mob, being saved by Miharu, how I ended up here. My farm family was shocked at this point since they had thought that I had just arrived there. I also told about how I started living here, coming back from a chore to find the strangers there, pouring drinks for them, getting touched by the pervert man, his accusations against me, being forced to do what he said, the fighting, how Miharu became my zanpakto. And finally how we made them strip and entertain us. A couple of the farm family snickered at this, despite the presence of the shinigami.

When I finished Toushiro just looked at me for a second, digesting the information. He sighed loudly and the next thing I knew I got whacked in the head with his sword, sheathe and all.

"Idiot! You must be cursed! How else could you find yourself in so much trouble?! STUPID!" He yelled at me.

He turned to our almost naked prisoners. "So, which one is the one who made you do all that, Hyuuga-chan?" I heard an underlying murderous intent in his voice.

My farm family heard it too and they all stepped to the side and all pointed at him together. "HIM!" They said. The pervert jumped and gawked in pure horror at Toushiro.

I felt shivers as Toushiro glared at him. I never knew that such a scary face could exist.

**Toushiro vision**

"S-so Toushiro-san, how did you get here?" I heard Hyuuga-chan stutter. I turned away from the man I vowed to get later on.

_'Go ahead and tell her you've been searching four days for her.' _Hyourinmaru said in a overly cuddly way.

_'No.'_

"I found out what happened when you first got here and have been looking for you for possible recruitment."

_'Tch. How boring.' _Hyourinmaru grumbled.

"Recruitment?" She asked.

I pointed at her zanpakto, Miharu. "You have a zanpakto, that you got with no formal training, and you have an above average spiritual pressure. You'd be a valued addition."

Hyourinmaru sighed. _'Just tell her you're in love with her al-' _I lifted Hyourinmaru and whacked him against the table. Like I wanted, it got him to shut up. Everyone gawked at me, trying to figure out why I did that.

Hyuuga-chan paused for a second, distracted by it. "I-I don't know if I really am-"

"HEEEY! Let's save all the serious talk for the morning. You must all be tired, right?" A farmer said, patting me on the back. "Let's all get some shut eye and you can continue in the morning, ok? Ok!" He grabbed my arm and dragged me from the table and the farmers also grabbed my subordinates and all pulled us away to rooms for us to sleep in. I was so surprised by their boldness that by the time I snapped out of it I was already in a room with my men and they had all left.

My men scratched their heads, shrugged, and plopped into the beds that were set up. With a grunt I also climbed into a bed, setting Hyourinmaru leaning against it.

_'You know what, Hitsugaya, you don't have to sleep here. You could always go find Hyuuga Hinata's room and crawl into her bed and say 'My darling, I cannot be away from you any-''_

_'Shut up now or I'll stick you up the ass of one of the half naked men.'_

_'Fine.'_

**Hinata vision**

I watched as my farm family dragged Hitsugaya and his friends away. I also got up from the table and went back to my room. As I crawled into bed I thought of what Toushiro said.

_'Miharu?'_

_'Yes?'_

_'What do you think about it? Becoming a shinigami, I mean.'_

_'…Well you'd certainly see your Toushiro a lot.'_

_'Miharu…'_ I thought sternly.

_'I don't think it's that bad of an idea really. You'd meet lots of interesting people, fight hollows, save poor old souls, and you probably live without much boredom.'_

I thought about this.

_'Not including your darling Toushiro.' _She sang.

I rolled over. _'Good night Miharu.' _I heard her laugh.

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_That's it for chapter 5!! hope you liked it and as always please review and/or comment. give advice or suggestions for improvement and I hope you read the next chapter when it comes out! _


	6. Chapter 6 Up Up and away!

_Chapterrrrr 66666! ^^ Thanks again for all your support so far guys! 8') so happy! anyway enjoy!!_

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**Hinata vision**

I slowly woke up. I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

_'Morning Hinata.'_ Miharu greeted. I told her good morning too. I got up, stretched, and headed out toward the kitchen. I opened the door to the kitchen. It wasn't until then that I remembered last night's events.

The woman were somewhat making breakfast. Half of them were in the kitchen and the other half were flocking around the doors outside.

Kojima noticed me standing there. "Hinata-chan come here!" I walked over to them and looked out the door as well. The pervert man was standing outside, clothed again, but soaking wet. Toushiro sat nearby on a crate, watching him.

"What is going on?" I asked Kojima.

She giggled. "Well it started about two hours ago actually, the second Hitsugaya-san was up he dragged him outside, got a bucket of water and splashed him with it! The man's been out wet for two hours! He must be freezing!"

I looked back at the pervert man; I could see that he was shaking from the cold. Toushiro looked as content as could be and kept his eyes on him.

A woman nudged me. "Hinata-chan, could you bring this out for him? He might like a snack to busy himself with." She handed me a loaf of bread.

"Hai." I responded and headed out. I realized that they were trying to get me alone with him when I heard them giggling behind me. I blushed, but it was already too late to go back inside. I walked out to Toushiro. "Morning Toushiro-san." I greeted.

He looked up at me. "Ah. Morning Hyuuga-chan."

I suddenly felt nervous. "U-uh Toushiro-san, you want something to eat? You've been out here for two hours right?" I pointed to the bread.

He blinked and scratched his head. "Two hours? Really? Seemed like a few minutes to me. You realize how long it's been?" He directed the question to the wet pervert man who began sobbing at this. I could tell Toushiro had noticed the time and that he was torturing the man like this on purpose.

He turned back to me and took the bread from me. He moved over to make room for me on the crate and I joined him. Some children walked up and said they wanted to torture the man and Toushiro gave them the go ahead. We watched as the children started crushing clods of dirt on the wet man's head.

"So, how have you been Toushiro-san?" I asked trying to start a conversation.

"Fine."

"Oh…that's good."

He looked at me. "Where's Miharu?"

I remembered that I left my zanpakto sitting next to the bed. "AH! I'll be right back Toushiro-san!" I ran back into the shed house to retrieve Miharu. The women teased me about Toushiro and laughed as I ran to my room. My face was fully red by the time I got there.

_'Oh, you remembered me?'_ Miharu asked.

_'I'm so sorry! I forgot all about you.'_

_'Hmf. You just left me here all by myself. Certainly not a nice way to treat your zanpakto!'_ Miharu pouted.

_'I'm so sorry, Miharu, I'll never do it again!' _I promised picking her up. I walked back out toward the kitchen.

**Toushiro vision**

I looked back over at her and noticed an absence. "Where's Miharu?"

She blinked then her mouth dropped open very comically. "AH! I'll be right back Toushiro-san!" She stood up quickly and ran back inside.

Hyourinmaru laughed. _'She forgot her zanpakto!! Nice one you picked out, Toushiro!'_ I ignored it and ate the bread she gave me.

I waited a minute and watched the children torturing the dead man.

_'So what do you plan to do to him for messing with your future lover?'_ Hyournmaru asked me.

_'Would you please cut out that lover crap? And you'll see soon.'_

_'Aw…here she comes.'_ He informed me. I looked over to see her coming back out. Miharu in her hand.

"Sorry, Toushiro-san. I had completely forgot all about… what are they doing?" followed her gaze to the kids.

"Eat it! Eat it!" They chanted, the dead man was holding a worm. He gawked at them, the worm, then at us. I glared at him, putting a hand on Hyourinmaru. The man gulped, looked at the worm, and slowly put it into his mouth. The children eww'd and laughed. I heard a giggle and glanced at Hyuuga-chan. She had a hand on her mouth, trying not to laugh at the display.

"That is so gross!" She managed to get out, still giggling.

"But funny." I replied, shrugging. I thought for a second over something that had been bugging me. "'Hey, Hyuuga-chan, how exactly did you die?"

"Eh?" She asked and gave me a look.

"Well, aren't you a ninja? How did the hollow get you if…?" It had been bugging me since the first time we met. I was wondering if she was stupid, slow, or just didn't notice it.

She paused, and looked away from me. "I… actually I took the attack for someone else." She mumbled, there was a sad look in her eyes.

"Took the attack? For who?" I pulled up a mental image of the people who were at the scene at the time.

She opened her mouth then closed it. I wondered what was wrong.

**Hinata vision**

I considered telling him, but also didn't want to. I hadn't thought of what happened for a long time. The memories still pained me. Naruto with Sakura, my love for him, everything. It pained me to think about it still. I really had loved Naruto. And when they said they were dating….. Something broke inside me. Despite that, in the end, I gave up my life to protect him, the one I loved. I couldn't tell Toushiro that!

_'Why not?' _Miharu asked me.

_'Because… he'll think I'm stupid.'_

_'For what? Saving someone you loved deeply? Don't be silly Hinata of course he won't!'_

_'…you think so?''_

_'Of course not, go ahead.'_

_'…… but….'_

_'But what Hinata?!' _Miharu barked, starting to lose patience.

_'There's too many people watching…'_

_'…are you kidding me? Ugh. Hinata you are way too shy for your own good!'_

"Hyuuga-chan, let's go talk somewhere private." Toushiro said and stood up.

I stared at him for a minute.

"Well?" He growled.

"O-oh! Hai!" I stood up, making sure to grab Miharu, and followed behind him into the trees. I heard some of the farm family make ooing noises, making me blush.

He stopped when we were out of view, and earshot I hoped, of everyone. He turned and sat on the ground. "So you going to answer me now?" I don't know how, but he knew that I didn't want to talk in front of everyone else. I felt my heart flutter at his consideration for my feelings.

"Hai." I said and sat down in front of him. "Um…where should I start?" I asked.

"Doesn't matter, we're in no hurry."

"O-okay. Back in my village th-there was a boy I had l-liked for a long time. I planned to confess to him on Valentines Day and I spent all the night before making chocolates…" I looked up at him nervously. He looked unemotionally at me and motioned for me to continue. "A-anyway, the next day, the day I died, I went to go give him the candies, but just when I was about to… a… a girl from his team ran up and…k-k-kissed him." I couldn't hold it back anymore and I cried. I covered my eyes and waited for them to stop. I felt a hand pat my head.

"Go ahead and let it all out. I'll wait." I heard him say. For some reason it calmed me down and my tears soon stopped. "Done?" He asked. And I nodded.

"Apparently just the night before they started going out… I hid the candies and sat next to someone in my team… then I noticed something in the air and when I turned to the source, one of those…monsters was standing behind the boy I liked, about to kill him. Next thing I knew on was on the ground dying…"I ended there and waited.

"…so you sacrificed your life to save the boy who just broke your heart?" I heard Toushiro ask. I nodded. "You must have really loved him." I looked up at him. He had a smile on his face, a kind smile. It was the first time I had seen such a smile on Toushiro's face. My heart thumped loudly and I looked away.

"Y-yeah I did." I replied the best I could.

_'Hinata is embarrassed!_' Miharu began singing but I didn't pay attention to her.

It was quiet for a minute.

"Hinata-chan, thanks for telling me." I heard Toushiro say, I turned and stared at him. "What?"

"You… called me 'Hinata-chan' not 'Hyuuga-chan'. That's the first time…" I mumbled. His eyes widened and he stood up.

"Yeah, I did. Want me not to?" He barked.

I shook my head. "N-no it's fine, I-I was just surprised is all! You can keep calling me by my name."

He smirked. "Good then." He paused and looked back toward where we came from. "Think it's about time we went back. Let's get going." He held out his hand for me. I took it and he helped me up. We began walking back and within a few minutes, found ourselves back at the shed house.

**Toushiro vision**

_'So that's what happened…' _I thought to myself as we walked back. I couldn't get the image of Hinata-chan's crying face out of my mind. I mentally pulled up the image from that day and surmised that the blond boy was the one she had liked and that the pink haired girl was his new girlfriend. I scowled.

_'Jealous?'_ Hyourinmaru said.

_'Of what?'_

_'Well, Hinata was deeply in love with a boy when she died and she still has feelings for him more than likely. You're jealous of that place she holds for someone elsssse.' _Hyourinmaru sang mischievously.

My face flushed._ 'I am NOT jealous of some…kid she liked before. She's free to like who she wants to like.'_

He tisked. _'Denial is such a bad mistress.'_

I noticed that we had arrived back to the building; they called it the shed house for some reason.

"So Hinata-chan, have you decided yet?" I asked her.

"About being a shinigami…?"

"M-hmm."

She paused. "Yes."

I looked at her. "And?"

She bit her lip, her lavender eyes studied the ground for a moment then flickered to me. "I'll do it. I'll become a shinigami." She said confidently.

I nodded. "Good, let's get leaving soon." I turned and started walking back to the 'shed house'.

"Leaving? Where to?" She asked trailing after me.

"To the seireitei." I responded. "You have to get enrolled at the training academy, though with how far you've progressed already you'd probably graduate early."

"Academy? Another one? Seireitei????"

"Don't worry I'll explain on the way there." I sighed.

_'Hey Hitsugaya.'_

_'What?'_

_'Imagine her in the girl's kimono uniform!' _I obeyed and I felt my face get hot. Hyourinmaru started laughing and I cursed out loud.

"Toushiro-san???" Hinata asked me with wide eyes. I thought for a second.

"About that Hinata-chan, starting now you have to start calling me 'Captain Hitsugaya'. It'd be best if no one knew that we know each other and since you are going to start training soon you should get into the habit quickly." I informed her.

"Oh. Okay… Captain Hitsugaya." She said quietly.

I nodded my approval and we entered the shed house. "Good, get any possessions you have, we leave in three hours." I told her and headed to inform my group.

**Hinata vision**

"Oh. Okay… Captain Hitsugaya." I said, testing out the new way of talking to him. If felt a bit strange but I guessed that I'd eventually get used to it.

Toushiro nodded and we went inside. "Good, get any possessions you have, we leave in three hours." He walked away and I stood staring after him for a minute.

_'Three hours?'_ It really hit me then. I was leaving and I was probably never going to see any of my farm family ever again. I walked numbly to my room and sat down.

_'Miharu…do you think what we're doing is all right? I mean, after all they did for us we're just up and leaving them behind.'_

_'…I don't know. I see this as the only option. If you stayed here you'd make them a target for attack. Besides that we still have much to learn about this sort of thing. The best way to get experience is to go become a Soul Reaper. Besides our abilities would be best served helping others.'_

_'…I know. But it seems like we're being ungrateful! They gave us a place to stay, food to eat, they treated me like one of their own, they were so nice to me and now I'm abandoning them. I can't help but feel bad.'_ I hid my face behind my hands.

_'Hinata…'_

"Hey, Hinta-chaaan!" I looked up to see Yamada and Kojima standing in the doorway of my room. "How was it with Hitsugaya-san?" Kojima sang, coming over to sit beside me.

"F-fine… but…"

"But what?"

"I-I decided to become a shinigami…" I told them. They paused then Kojima shrieked and hugged me.

"That's wonderful Hinata-chan!"

Yamada came over and patted my shoulder. "Way to go, Hina-chan!"

I looked at them, baffled. "Y-you're fine with it."

"Of course we are! Why wouldn't we be proud of you?" Kojima laughed.

I twirled my fingers, I really hadn't done that in a while. "W-well, You all have been so nice to me and now I'm just leaving and-"

"What? That's what you're worried about. Oh Hinata-chan you silly!" Kojima ruffled me hair. "Why would we ever be mad at you about that? Sure we'll miss you but that's just how things are. Friends come and they go. And where you're going is something to be happy about."

"Kojima…" I mumbled, feeling moved by my friend's support.

Yamada grinned. "Besides, you can always come visit any time. So it's not really a final goodbye."

I looked at the two of them.

_'See told you so.'_ Miharu said as I burst into happy tears and hugged them.

About three hours later I left my room and went to meet up with Toushiro to leave. I was walking into the kitchen when everyone popped out and scared me.

"Hinata!!!!" They all yelled into unison and they all started hugging me, wishing me luck, an telling me how they would be rooting me every single day. A couple people cried and the children danced around my legs, once or twice I almost tripped over them. I said goodbye to them one by one. Finally I spotted Hitsugaya and his friends waiting for me by the door.

"Ready to go?" He asked as I approached them.

I nodded.

"Good. Let's head out!" He said loudly and we went outside and started walking toward the road.

They began calling out, saying goodbyes and other such stuff. I looked back once. Kojima and Yamada were in front of the group, holding hands. I smiled warmly at them and raised a hand. "Goodbye!" I called one final time. I turned back around and we began the long walk back to what Toushiro called the seireitei.

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_WOOF! END OF CHAPTER 6!! EEE! FLUFFY CHAPTERRR! xD Like always, comment, review, and give advice for what you think would make it better. ;) see ya next time._


	7. Chapter 7 The Academy

_Chapter 7!! TT_TT thx so much to everyone who's read this far and especially to everyone's awesome reviews! :) and with that, time for the next chap and a lil extra (heart)_

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**::::EXTRA::::**

"Captain are you sure that you should have just left them there like that?" One of the men asked Toushiro.

Hinata frowned. "Left who where?" She asked in confusion.

Toushiro smiled evilly. "You really want to know?" Hitsugaya told her exactly what he did. He had it plotted for awhile actually.

A group of merchants walked along the little road to the next village. They laughed and entertained each other on the way. An older man stopped and the rest stopped with him to gawk at them.

Along the trees were soaking wet men in full clothing tied to the trees, hair and clothes covered in ice. A small sign was stuck in the ground saying 'do not assist until thawed'!

"P-p-p-please u-u-untie us." One man stuttered.

The baffled group of merchants hurried on, leaving the frozen group there to wait for the next person to come down the road.

**::::  


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**

_Now to chapter 7!_

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**Hinata vision**

I tugged on the skirt of my uniform. The uniform was a white and red kimono with the academy symbols on the chest. I looked at myself in the mirror for a second.

Two days ago we arrived at the seireitei, almost immediately I was dragged to the academy to enroll. The headmaster had agreed to put me in the third year class since I had already discovered my zanpakto, Miharu. Though, I was to attend extra classes, to catch up with my classmates.

Thing is Toushiro had come with me to enroll and we ended up getting a lot of attention._ So much for people not knowing that we were acquainted._ I sighed heavily.

Today will be my first day of classes, I would find my room that I would be sharing, go to classes, and from then on I will be living there. I felt nervous. I heard knocking on the door and I called for whoever it was to come in.

Toushiro popped his head in. "You ready, Hinata-chan?"

"H-hai." I stuttered. He started staring at me. "W-what?"

"Nothing really." He replied.

A red headed woman burst in and came over to me. She took my hands in hers and stared into my eyes.

"C-can I help you?" I asked. I could see Toushiro put a hand on his forehead.

"Matsumoto, why are you here?" He grumbled, I noticed that he reverted back to serious mode.

The woman, Matsumoto, looked over her shoulder at him. "This is her, right? The one that you were looking for? Hello there, I'm the lieutenant of division 10. You're Hyuuga Hinata, right? The girl that made my captain go out of character right-"

Toushiro snapped his head toward her. "I did not go out of character! And you still haven't answered me!"

She pulled her hands, and mine, toward her. I suddenly noticed that she had an abnormally large breast size. "No wonder, you are so cute! Besides that you are short too, about his height."

"Are you listening to me?!" Toushiro yelled.

"Ah! Has he given it to you yet?"

"G-given what???" I asked. My mind was whirling from all the sudden activity.

"He hasn't?! He got it just for you. Shiro-chaan!" She finally released me, and ran over to Toushiro. She grabbed him under the arms, picked him up, and carried him over.

"MATSUMOTO!!" He yelled angrily. "PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW, and DON'T CALL ME THAT!!"

"Ok fine, here." She set him down in front of me "Go on go on give it to her." She pushed his shoulders to urge him on.

He scowled at her. Glanced at me and looked away.

_'Uh oh he's mad.'_ I thought to myself.

Miharu laughed. 'He looks so funny when he's pouting!'

"Come on what's with you, give it to her!" She began but she stopped. "Oh wait." She walked out of the room popping her head in to say, "There now you got some privacy." And left us alone.

It was silent for a minute.

Toushiro groaned. "Stupid Matsumoto." He pinched between his brows, annoyed.

"She certainly was… spontaneous." I put in.

He glanced at me, sighed, and crossed his arms. "I'll give you what she was talking about but you have to close your eyes!"

I flinched and obeyed.

_'Fufufufwa. His face is red."_ Miharu giggled.

I heard his footsteps come toward me and something was slipped onto my head.

"Ok open them."

I opened my eyes in time to see him leaving the room. I stared at the door for a minute wondering what he did.

_'Hinata look in the mirror.'_ Miharu told me. I turned and gasped.

His present had been a red headband that had two little bows on it. It matched the uniform perfectly, and was very cute.

_'He…got me a headband?'_ I fingered it, still looking in the mirror.

_'Looks good on you Hinata!' _Miharu said happily. _'He must have specially picked it out.'_

I blushed at the idea and shook my head._ 'No he wouldn't do that. He probably just saw it and thought I'd want it.'_

_'Isn't that almost the same thing?'_

_'No it is not!!'_

Miharu laughed at me. I looked at the time, grabbed my zanpakto, a small bag that had my things in it, and headed out to the academy.

**Toushiro vision**

I quickly left the room and passed by Rangiku. She trailed behind.

"How'd it go? She like it?" She chimed.

"I don't know." I responded coldly.

"Don't know?"

"I gave it to her and left."

"…You didn't even wait?"

"No."

"You're rude Shi-"

I pointed at her. "Call me that and you'll regret it."

She rolled her eyes at me and we continued on.

_'Aww. You were so embarrassed you didn't even look back.' _Hyourinmaru teased.

_'Shut up already.'  
_

**Hinata vision**

I found the girl's rooms and walked down the hallways looking for the number of the room I would be staying in. I followed directions and soon found myself in front of my room that I would be sharing with another girl. I took a deep breath, made sure Miharu was of sight one last time, and knocked on the door.

"Come in." I heard a girl call out. I slid the door open to see a girl with long brown hair sitting on a bed near the far wall. The room had two beds, a desk, and a closet. An oil lamp sat on the side table between the two beds, though it was unlit because the sun was shining through a window."WHO are you?" She asked rudely.

I looked away from her and twiddled my fingers; apparently I was picking up the habit again. "H-Hello, I'm the new s-student. Are you my roommate?"

She scoffed. "Well, duuh, why ELSE would I be here, baka. What's your name? And close the door already!" The girl barked at me. I obeyed, she reminded me of a mix of Sakura and Ino. Just a whole lot more mean and not any of the niceness.

_'You got that right.' _Miharu observed.

After I introduced myself, she told me her name was Teshigahara Chitose, but she told me to call her Teshigahara-san. Nothing else. As I made myself at home she chattered about the academy. All the cute boys, girls she hated, apparently just 'weirdos' like me, whose boyfriend she was secretly dating, how far she'd 'gone', and all kinds of stuff like that. At some point I stopped paying attention.

Chitose continued with her one sided conversation and when it was time to go we walked to our first class together. I had left Miharu in the room for now, according to Miharu we wouldn't be able to communicate. Our first class was sparring practice. The instructor had everyone pair up. Right then Chitose ran across the room to pair up with another girl. I was beginning to become worried when another girl with shoulder length black hair patted my shoulder.

"Hey, new girl, want to be partners?" She asked.

"Ah! Hai!"

She smiled. "Good, nice to meet you I'm Fujiwara Kaede, you?"

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata. Nice to meet you, too."

We started talking a bit about the academy and stuff when she asked who I was 'bunking' with. When I old her it was Chitose she paused.

"Hinata-chan, I'd be careful around her if I was you. She's not the most trustworthy person." She warned me. I was going to ask her about this when the instructor called for us to grab a practice zanjutsu and begin sparring with our partners. After grabbing one of the wooden swords each we found ourselves an open space and began sparring. I felt slightly off balance since I hadn't often actually used a sword. Carrying one around was one thing, fighting was another. Kaede soon realized that I wasn't experienced so she went easier on me, though not that easy.

"Stop swiping so lightly, put some more muscle into it!" She told me. I tried what she said to do but when she parried the blow I felt completely unbalanced. "Geez." She sighed, watching me wobble. "How'd you get into the third year class???"

After I fuddled pathetically, she stopped and showed me the basics. "No no no!" You're doing it all wrong! Like this: left hand at the bottom, right near the hilt. Keep your arms bent and ready." She coached me. Before I knew it, it was time to put our swords up for the next session. (apparently in the third year, half the day was spent practicing fighting techniques) .

The next part was about kido, focusing on Hadou, destruction spells.

"Okay, today we will be practicing a number 33 spell called sokatsui. As beginners you will have to recite the whole chant, but more experienced reapers have been known to just say the name to activate the kido. Now listen closely to the chant because I will only say it once." The instructor recited the chant and demonstrated on a dummy, a blue bolt hit the target, causing several chunks to fly off it. "Now pick a dummy and practice."

Chitose came forward. "How do you expect us to remember such a long chant?! I've never even heard of this one before-"

The instructor waved his hand at her. "Do you think that if you're fighting a hollow that'll it will **wait** for you to remember the chant to a kido spell? As a soul reaper you must be able to memorize and be able to recite without thinking. If you can't even learn the chant to such a simple kido...well I** pity **the poor squad you'll be assigned to. Now get practicing."

Chitose huffed and stomped away toward a dummy. I turned and saw Kaede waiting for me. We walked to the end of the line of dummies outside. She recited the best she could but only managed to get a small spark.

"Arg! This is annoying. I can barely remember the chant! Your turn Hinata-chan." She motioned to the dummies in defeat.

I closed my eyes and thought back to when the instructor taught us the chant and repeated. "_O Lord, mask of flesh and bone, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man, truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!_" I copied what he had done, pointed at the dummy, I felt energy go through me and a big bolt of blue energy flew out and hit the dummy.

I smiled happily and turned to see everyone staring at me. "What?"

The instructor gaped. "Have you…ever done this kido before?"

"No, I've never done a kido before in fact." I told him. Then I realized what the big deal was. In Konoha, I had done special fighting techniques passed down in the Hyuuga family that specialized in dealing out excessive amounts of chakra. I was trained to memorizing hand signs to the fullest degree of accuracy. But everyone else here had probably, before joining the academy, had never done the special training I had been doing for as long as I could remember.

"And yet…you remembered it perfectly…and you were actually able to conjure one that well developed. I'm impressed." The instructor remarked, giving me a look of praise. "Continue on everybody, the lesson hasn't ended yet!" He turned and walked to check the progress of the others.

Kaede ran over and gave me a high five. "Sweet! I can't believe it! You actually did it! No wonder you're in year three. Sure, your zanjutsu needs improvement, but dang! You were able to do a kido so well your first try!" She put an arm around my shoulder and pointed at the instructor silly-ly. "What was that damn chant again??? "Lord of flash and bone….fluttering things, named after man, truth and something…. Sinny dreams that unleash wrath of your claws?" She joked, laughing to herself. Suddenly a blue bolt shot out towards the instructor. Some kids yelped, alerting him, and he ducked in time. Everyone looked at us again, with Kaede's arm around my shoulder and her hand pointing toward the instructor.

"…what… the…hell?!" She muttered.

Five minutes later…

"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO BLAST YOUR TEACHER?! OUGHT TO PUNISH THE BOTH OF YOU!!!" The headmaster scolded us.

"I-I don't even know how it happened! I didn't even say the chant right!" Kaede protested.

"Th-that's right! She said 'Lord of flash and bone, fluttering things, named after man, truth and something, sinny dreams that unleash wrath of your claws'." I repeated just like how she said it.

Kaede looked at me with admiration. "You really are good at remembering things, aren't you?"

The man huffed. "Well, if she didn't even say the right chant, how did the kido form, hmm? Was it you, Hyuuga-san? I heard that you performed it very well just a minute before your instructor was almost vaporized-"

Kaede stood up. "Hinata-chan didn't do anything! Neither of us did! We have nothing to do with what happened!! You have no proof!"

The headmaster groaned. "…Fine. I'll let you two off with a warning this time. Next time something like this happens you both will be punished. Now get back to your lessons." He said, dismissing us.

On the way there she sighed loudly. "Maaan! What the heck happened back there anyway?" She pointed to the wall and repeated the chant she said before with no results. "Darn it, this makes no sense!!"

I tried consoling her but once we were back in the practice hall her mood soured more when everyone started whispering and making teases about how we got in trouble.

"You two arrived at a good time." The instructor growled, still not forgiven us apparently. "You can be the assistants I need to demonstrate Hakuda!" He grabbed our arms and dragged us to the sparring area. "Hakuda is essentially," He let go of us, "hand to hand fighting including martial arts. Few master it and it is not nearly as popular a fighting technique. But several important roles in the seireitei require hakuda. Not I will show you the proper ways of fighting in this style. Fujiwara, you're first!"

Kaede gulped, looked at me, and stepped forward.

"First off, let's show how to incapacitate someone!" He ran forward, grabbed Kaede's arm, and then twisted it, turning Kaede, and pinning her arm behind her back, she squeaked. "That is one simpler method. Now let's see this one." He straightened her arm then twisted it to the side, and yanking it upwards causing her to bend over, making her yelp in pain. "This is another method of keeping someone from moving." After three more humiliating methods he finally let her go. "Now, Hyuuga, how about you help me demonstrate the combat portion?"

My mouth dropped open. I reluctantly stepped forward, waiting for what he'd dish out. But I already made my mind up. No matter what he dished out I wasn't going to take it sitting down. I would give them at least a good show.

"Now first class I'll show you how to knock an opponent to the ground to lead to an easy victory." He turned to me and ran forward. I waited until the last minute, then spun on my heel and sidestepped him.

He halted and gawked at me. Then gave me an angry smile. "You're not going to behave, Hyuuga?"

"No, sir! I'm sorry, you must have run by me." I lied.

"Ok then…. Let's try this again!!" He ran toward me again. This time I ducked right when he was in front of me. He looked down; I took the element of surprise and hit the bottom of his jaw with the palm of my hand, Hyuuga style.

He wobbled back a few steps, massaging his chin. He examined me. "You're experienced in hand to hand fighting, eh?"

I shrugged. "I guess you could call it that." In actuality, the style of fighting the Hyuuga's employed involved a type of martial arts known only to the Hyuuga's. We used it to fire chakra at our opponents and over such tasks. Who knew it'd be useful at a time like this?

He smirked. "Interesting, new student. I was doubting your abilities during the zangetsu practice, now I see why they put you in this year..." He looked toward the class. "Okay, that's enough for today. You're all to practice on your own for the rest of the day."

My classmates gawked at me, then slowly left to practice. Kaede ran up and started asking me if I'd teach her how to fight like that.

Afterwards Chitose walked up and another girl did too. The other girl introduced herself as Kaede's roommate, Akaya.

"Can we trade roommates? I want to bunk with Ayaka, and now that we both have roommates we can trade, how's that sound?" She suggested the idea to Kaede. She thought about it for a minute.

"Only if you move in our room and I get to move into yours." She said.

"Deal. I'll go get my stuff now!" Chitose giggled and ran back to the room.

I walked with Kaede to her room. "Why do they want to trade so bad?" I asked. She gave me a 'are you stupid look'.

"Ayaka is Chitose's closest stool pigeon. Ever since we started at the academy Chitose has been putting pressure on me for Ayaka to become her roommate." She rolled her eyes.

"Why do you always refer to Chitose like that? She really can't be that bad! I haven't seen her do one bad thing." I said to her.

She mumbled under her breath. "Wait until later."

--

So my first day at the academy ended with Kaede becoming my roommate, a new headband, new interest in the classes, and a Miharu laughing at my expense. Though little did I know that the day I enrolled would cause me more trouble than I expected.

--

The next morning I woke up to Kaede's yelling. I sat up sleepily. "What's all the fuss about, Kaede-chan?"

She turned to me, very angry. "Look what someone did to our door last night!!"

I got up slowly and walked over to her. I gasped and slowly read what was written on it.

**GO AWAY OVER ACHEIVER!**

**STAY AWAY FROM HITSUGAYA!**

**LOW CLASS!**

**PISS OFF FUJIWARA! **

**GO DIE!**

Messages like that were scribbled all over. I stared in shock. "W-who would write such...?!" I stuttered.

Kaede looked at me coldly and walked back inside our room. "Try asking Chitose and her group. The ones that say 'go die' and 'stay away from htsugaya' are in her handwriting."

I looked at the door again in confusion. "Why would they do something so mean?"

She shrugged. "That's just how people treat outsiders like us. My family lineage is 'low class' and I do not do what they tell me,and you are talented and have a connection to a famous shinigami. What did you expect? Quite honestly they wanted to trade also so they could target both of us at once. Couldn't do this if me and Ayaka still shared a room. Wouldn't be surprised if Chitose went through your stuff while you weren't there."

I looked over at where Miharu was hidden under the bed.

_'Don't worry, she didn't. But I'm not going to tell you what she was saying about you when she was moving out.'_

"Anyway, we better get ready for classes. Today we're studying, not practicing." Kaede continued, walking toward her stuff.

I watched her. "How are so calm about this?"

"What? About this?" She rolled her eyes. "Trust me, people have done a lot worse things to me than writing threats on my door. This doesn't bother me much. Just that we have to be the ones to paint over it now. And don't take them seriously." She smiled a me. "They're just a bunch of childish cowards."

I laughed and got ready for class as well. I said bye to Miharu and we went to today's class, talking about what they usually studied.

----

The next few weeks blurred into several months. Over time me and Kaede got Chitose and Ayaka back by putting rotten eggs under their beds, Kaede schooled me in zangetsu and I helped her with Hakuda and Kido, and before I knew it almost six months had passed since I first joined the academy, and since I last saw Toushiro.

I had been so busy that I really hadn't thought about him at all. During lunch one day I wondered how he was doing.  
_'Miss him?'_ Miharu teased.

_'No!'_ I blushed.

Kaede looked over at me. "Why is your face red?"

"N-no! It's nothing!!" I were currently eating outside, apparently close enough for me and Miharu to communicate.

Kaede thought about something for a minute. ""Hey, Hinata-chan can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, what?"

"What IS your relationship with Captain Hitsugaya?" She asked.

I nearly choked on the apple I was eating. Miharu started laughing at me in the back of my head.

"You ok?!" She asked.

"F-fine..." I got out. "W-why you asking?"

"No reason." She shrugged. "Been meaning to ask you for awhile but I thought now might be as good a time as any. So how do you know each other?"

I thought of the best way to tell her. Already deciding to edit out most of the details. I just didn't feel comfortable telling her everything. "Well, when I died he saved me from a hollow. And he also recruited me afterwards."

"Ohhh!" She smiled. "So that's why he came with you to get you enrolled. Also explains that zanpakto you're hiding under your bed!"

"You know about Miharu?!"

"That it's name? And yeah, duh, I am your roommate, how would I NOT notice?" She asked rhetorically.

_'She's right y'know._' Miharu agreed.

She stood up and brushed the back of her uniform. "Let's get going, class will be starting soon. We're doing that target practice in the living world today again, I think." She held out her hand and helped me up.

* * *

_YAYS! Trust me, it's going to get interesting in the next chapter! ^^- hope you liked it. Wasn't nearly as funny as the other chapters but from the beginning it wasn't meant to be. Anyway, make a review, give advice on how to make it better, and comment on it. Etc._


	8. Chapter 8 Conflicting emotions

_Chapter 8 is here… srry guys I've been busy with several things and I got a bit of writers block … anyway enjoy! ^^ btw this is the longest chapter so far! (get some popcorn! :))_

* * *

3 months later….

Several party blowers blew out, and confetti poofed out from around us.

"Congratulations, students! You are now fourth years!" One of our instructors said to us.

Our classmates cheered and patted each other on the back. It had been about nine months since I joined the academy, and now, I was a fourth year. Only three more years to go before I became a 'soul reaper' as they called it in the academy.

"Awesome!" Kaede cheered and gave me a high five. Our fellow fourth years celebrated around us until a huge kido blasted above us.

"Cut it out already! Just because your fourth years doesn't mean you don't do your lessons today! Now pair up! You're doing zangetsu sparring today!"

My classmates groaned but did as ordered. I turned to Kaede, shrugged, and we went to grab a pair of practice swords. Something hit my foot and I fell down.

"Hinata?!" Kaede stopped to help me up.

Someone giggled and I looked up to see Chitose. "How clumsy. I feel sorry for the squad that gets killed because of you!" She laughed and walked off with her entourage.

Kaede just rolled her eyes. "I swear that girl gets more and more childish every day. C'mon Hinata let's get to practicing."

I put the incident out of my mind like I usually did. Chitose had it out for us since day one. By now we were used to her silly pranks. We just got her back several times worse, but lately she just bored us so we didn't even bother. Me and Kaede found an open area and began practicing. When I first came I was terrible at Zangetsu, but thanks to Kaede's coaching I was at an 'acceptable' level to her. We now practiced at full ability, rather than Kaede going easy on me.

Kaede blocked attack after attack from me and I did the same. The instructors called for everyone to stop. They had decided to start pitting us against our classmates to gauge our skills rather than us just fight the same opponents over and over.

"First let's have… Fujiwara and Arihyoshi to the sparring mats!"  
Arihyoshi Arisa was one of Chitose's buddies. A loud mouth as I recalled. Literally she would insult us so loud you could hear her 50 feet away. Kaede smirked at this and went to the sparring ring.

After the rules for the match were read they signaled for them to begin. Arisa ran forward with her sword above her, Kaede sidestepped her and, in the blink of an eye, put her sword across Arisa's neck, ending the match.

Everyone cheered and laughed at the quick ending and Arisa was sent with a hanged head back to Chitose. Kaede high fived me. After five more matches we switched to Hakuda fights. My name was called for the second match against Daishi Machiko, a boy I had seen around often. He was a burly and big guy, with a loud laugh. I never had talked to him at all, not that I talked to any of the boys really.

Our match started.

"I'll try to go easy on you, girly." He chuckled and got into a stance.

I didn't reply. He roared and ran toward me, right fist out. I stepped to my right and grabbed his right arm with my left. I pulled him off balance and struck at his jaw. Machiko wobbled backwards in confusion. Not down yet. I took the opportunity and dashed forward and low kicked his knees. He fell backward and onto the ground, Machiko stared above him in pure confusion, I walked over and put my foot on his throat, ending my match.

"Match! Hyuuga!" An instructor announced. Kaede and a few others cheered for me as I left the sparring area. The guys mocked and laughed at Machiko as he also left.

"Shut up you idiots!" An instructor yelled at us. "Is that how you behave in front of a captain?!"

That made everyone quiet.

'Captain?' I wondered. My classmates looked toward the instructor and their mouths dropped open. I looked as well. I nearly fell down. Standing next to the instructor was none other than Hitsugaya Toushiro.

**Toushiro vision  
**

I groaned as we walked to the academy. "Do I have to go?"

"You can't back out now!" Rangiku scolded me, ironic. "Besides don't you want to see how that girl is doing?"

I looked away from my lieutenant. "I have no idea what you're talking about." I lied.

Rangiku rolled her eyes. A few days ago I was informed that I had been selected to congratulate the new fourth years on their 'graduation' as it was called. I had the feeling that Rangiku had nominated me for it, though I have no other proof than an evil smile she had the day I was told about it.

Even though I acted as business was normal, from time to time I did wonder how Hinata-chan was faring in the academy. Even more so when I heard about how two girl students, one fitting her description, had almost blasted an instructor with a kido.

We stopped in front of the academy entrance where an instructor was waiting for us. The man spotted us and came over quickly.

"Captain Hitsugaya! Welcome. This way this way. The fourth years are sparring right now so you can watch their progress!" He rambled. As he led me away I waved for Rangiku to go, she had only come to tease me, she waved goodbye and went back to work on her mountains of paperwork.

Walking around the academy brought back memories of when I attended. I wouldn't be surprised if I could find my old room by just walking around aimlessly. Finally, we stopped in front of the doors to a sparring room. I could hear voices from the other side cheering and sounds of fighting. He put a finger to his lips, I guess he wanted us to surprise them, and we went inside.

None of the students noticed us as we stood against the back wall and watched them. I crossed my arms and observed the students. From where we were we had a good view of the sparring area. Two students were just finishing a zangetsu match when we arrived. The man who had brought me pointed out the two students and named them. I watched with mild interest as they began Hakuda fighting, I was more of a zangetsu person. I made sure to memorize their names and faces though.

The match ended and the next two were called. "Step up to the sparring area, Hyuuga Hinata and Daishi Machiko!"

I looked up at the name and scanned the students. I finally spotted Hinata-chan walking up to the sparring area.

I kept my eyes on her as I asked the instructor a question. "Is the Hyuuga girl one of the girls who almost used a kido on an instructor?"

The man gave me a look. "Yep, in fact it was me they almost hit. Stupid girls deserved to get expelled!" He turned to glare at Hinata-chan.

I felt like 'accidentally' hitting him with Hyourinmaru but decided against it. I studied Hinata-chan's opponent. A big guy with lots of obvious strength. The guy said something to her but she didn't seem to care at all. The match started and he ran forward to hit her. My hands tightened but I apparently had nothing to worry about. Hinata-chan dodged him easily, grabbed his arm, and made a blow to his chin. The bulk staggered and she hit his knees, bringing him and the match to an end by putting a foot on his throat.

I felt pleased, and strangely proud, as the match was called in favor of Hinata-chan. Some of the kids cheered and a group of boys laughed at the conclusion. The man next to me glared at the fourth years.

"Shut up you idiots!" The instructor yelled at them. "Is that how you behave in front of a captain?!"

_'Well, that's one way to announce your presence.'_ Hyourinmaru commented and I sighed.

The students got quiet and turned to us. Their eyes widened at me, but I stared straight on.

The man turned to me with a suck up smile. "So sorry, Captain! With a bunch of troublemakers like these what can you do?"

"It's fine." I replied. I waved my hand at the fourth years. "Go ahead and continue."

The instructors paused, then obeyed and called the next pair. I could see Hinata-chan out of the corner of my eye looking at me. A girl her nudged her, and said something. She looked away to talk to her. While she was looking away I studied her. Her hair was a bit longer than he last time I saw her. She was also wearing the headband I gave her all those months ago, good thing to know that she was making use of it. Other than that she didn't look much different. I noticed that Miharu wasn't with her, not surprising at all really.

_'Go talk to her already!' _Hyourinmaru told me.

_'What are you talking about? I just wanted to know if she was doing all right and she is.'_

_'Stop that attitude already!'_

_'Attitude?'_

_'You know what I'm talking about. You always act like work is the only thing on your mind, even now you're using that same mindset!'_

_'That's because work is the only thing that I'm worried about, with that lieutenant of mine always ditching her paperwork!'_

Hyourinmaru groaned. _'It's because of your silly denial that you're going to lose her to someone else, don't blame me then!'_

The whole conversation was annoying me to the point of getting a headache._ 'Lose her? What's that supposed to mean? Why would I care if she got a boyfriend or something?'_

Hyourinmaru ignored me. I remembered that I was still staring at Hinata-chan and looked away. I caught a girl with long brown hair nearby looking at me just as I was looking away and our eyes met. She looked away first but as she did so her eyes locked onto Hinata for a second. I immediately knew that she had seen me looking at Hinata-chan, and that she wasn't pleased about it. But that didn't bother me much, she couldn't cause any harm.

A girl came into the sparring room, apparently late, and ran to join the crowd of students.

**Chitose vision**

I glared at Hinata, half wishing she'd look this way. _Little slut! _She had annoyed me ever since I first saw her. Strutting around with Captain Hitsugaya, getting a 'special' recommendation from him, cheating her way through the academy. Completely unfair to everyone who has worked hard to get here.

_'Whats so special about HER?'_ For the billionth time I wondered what her connection to the captain was.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Ayaka, late.

"Where have you been?" I asked her. "I've been waiting for you!"

"Sorry, I just needed to look a little more."

"Find anything out?"

She smirked. "Tons! Get this, Hyuuga is from a dignified and powerful family. She was the heiress in fact! Not only that, but Captain Hitsugaya was the one who sent her to the soul society!"

"Interesting…" That explained how they knew each other. Good thing I had assigned Ayaka to be the one to dig into her past, her connections were to be admired.

She nodded happily. "That's not all! You know how that captain recruited her? Well afterwards, according to sources, he picked something in a shop the day before Hyuuga came here. Guess what? It's that little hairband she's always wearing!!"

I flinched. I had noticed it when she was my roommate. I wanted it instantly, it was unbelievably cute! I wanted it so much that it was one of the reasons I had gone through her stuff while she was out of the room that day. I felt anger boil inside me. Then I came up with a plan, a little idea. I'd show that little bitch just who was superior.

**Hinata vision**

"Uh oh." Kaede mumbled beside me.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Chitose is looking this way."

"What's so bad about that?"

"She looks incredibly pissed!" Kaede gave me an evil smile. "Hinata, you little devil, what'd you do to make her face so red?"

I blinked. "I don't know. I haven't talked to her in months. You?"

"Nope. I thought you did something."

We thought for a second.

Kaede looked behind us. "You think it's because of the captain?"

"Eh?" I kept myself from following her gaze. "Why would she be mad about Captain Hitsugaya?"

She smirked at me. "Maybe she thinks you two are like this?" She put two fingers together and started making it look like they were making out.

I blushed. "W-w-w-we're n—not like th-that! Wh-what would give anyone that i-idea?!" I looked at her fingers that were still making out. Kaede started to make sound effects, some people around us were staring. My face got hotter. I grabbed her wrists. "CUT THAT OUT!" I pulled her fingers apart and she laughed at my embarrassment.

She looked over my shoulder. "Ahh. Here comes the queen of pricks now."

I looked to see Chitose approaching me, she had a …_nice_ smile??

"Hey, Hinata-chan? Could you come talk to me later? I feel really bad about how things have been this last nine months and… I want to start over! You too Kaede!" She smiled warmly at us.

"Are you on crack?" Kaede asked her.

I expected Chitose to snap but she giggled. "No, no! Of course not! Silly! Meet me in the girl's bathroom in five minutes, ok? See ya!" She walked back to her friends and they left the sparring room.

Kaede and me stared for a few minutes.

"What… the hell?! Has Chitose gotten a brain transplant in the last minute?" Kaede mumbled.

I shrugged. "You think we should go…?"

"Not in a million years! Probably some trick! ...although…."

"What?"

Kaede looked at me. "I'm partially interested in what she has in store for us."

I frowned. "I don't like it." I began to say. Kaede hooked her arm around mine and started dragging me toward the door. "K-kaede?!"

She grinned evilly. "Let's go see what the girl wants first! It could be funny!"

"W-what happened to _'not in a million years'_?!" I asked her.

"That was forty seconds ago! Jeesh! Go with the flow Hinata-chan." She opened the door and she began dragging me down the hall.

"I don't think I _LIKE_ this flow!!" I protested, but she ignored my pleas and we continued down the hall.

We finally came to the girl's bathroom. Kaede opened the door and walked through first and I followed behind her.

A group of girls were inside. All Chitose's friends. Chitose snickered as we walked in.

"What's so funny?" Kaede asked her calmly.

"Your stupidity." She responded,

"SAI!" A girl pointed at us, I felt my body go numb and I fell to the floor. The girls laughed and I realized that we had been duped. I recognized the Bakudou as Sai, a kido that restricts movement. I couldn't move at all, I could see Kaede beside me, also restricted like me. Two girls walked over to us, grabbed our shoulders, and held us up so we could look at Chitose.

"How stupid are you two? Seriously!" Chitose laughed at us. I felt my body go cold.

"What's this about?" Kaede growled.

Chitose looked at Kaede with a cold sneer. "Don't get riled up, you brute. My business is with Hinata-chan, not you!" She walked over to me. "Bet you thought you were hot stuff, eh? What about now? Think you're so cool now?"

I stared at her. "What are you talking abou-?"

She grabbed my hair and yanked hard, making me cry out. "Shut up." She told me.

"Hinata-chan! Leave her alone you-" Kaede began. A girl put an onion in her mouth, silencing her. The girls laughed at Kaede and I wondered where they got an onion at.

Chitose looked at me again. "Like I said before, I want to start over, I decided to forgive you. On one _condition_."

"Condition?" I asked her. I didn't like how she said it.

She smirked. "You never speak or look at Captain Hitsugaya ever again."

I gawked at her. "What does the captain have anything to do with-?"

She glared at me. "Don't act innocent! You think you're so cool, being recommended by a captain. By the genius captain! You have his attention now, but that's only because you have a few talents. Once he sees that he'll forget all about you and you'll be just like us in his eyes! You're nothing special!" She tugged my hair again. "So do as I say and we won't ever bother you and Kaede ever again!! Understand?!"

I felt tears of pain brimming in my eyes. Her words sunk more in than I liked. Toushiro's smiling face, his sympathy, standing behind me when we met again, saving my life, the present he gave me… all the memories I have of him flitted in front of my eyes. Never to talk to him… never to touch him… never…anything with him… my chest hurt at the idea. Just like… when Naruto and Sakura got together. Why was I having this feeling right now? Was it because of these cruel girl's actions or… was it… that I was in love with Toushiro? An instant giddy feeling swept through me and I realized the truth.

_'I'm in love with Toushiro.' _Ithoughtto myself.

"Well?" Chitose yanked my hair again, interrupting my thoughts.

I knew my answer. "No."

"NO?! What do you mean no?!!" She demanded, shaking me.

"I mean... I won't stop my friendship with Captain Hitsugaya just because of a few jealous girls!" I said as confidently as I could and glared at Chitose. "I will **NEVER** do that to him."

She glared back, hatred glowed in her eyes. I thought she was going to hit me but she stopped and looked coldly at me. She let go of my hair. "I guess I can't force you…"

I was surprised when she said that so I just stared at her. She reached down and grabbed my hairband and pulled it out.

"Hey!" I protested.

"This… is important to you right?" Chitose said aloud. She glared at me again and started walking away. "If the captain is so important to you…" She walked the stall next to us.

She turned around and smirked evilly at me. She let go of the hairband and it fell into the toilet. "Then this shouldn't compare to your precious captain at all, right?" She giggled, flushed the toilet, and walked out of the stall. "Let them go. Undo the kido when we get back to the practice room." The girls holding us let us go, left the onion in Kaede's mouth, and exited the bathroom. We lied on the floor for a minute until we felt the kido release.

Kaede immediately got up and ripped the onion out of her mouth and half gagged.

"Thought I was going to die! That whore is going to die! Wait til I-!" She started stomping toward the bathroom door. She suddenly stopped and looked back at me.

I had stood up during this and was staring into the stall Chitose was in. My headband, of course, didn't flush. But the bows had become tattered and one was barely holding onto the headband, the other was floating freely in the bowl. I hadn't realized it but tears were falling down my cheeks.

"Hinata?" Kaede asked me. The first time she had said my name without the chan at the end, but I didn't pay attention.

I tried to stop myself, but I couldn't. My tears came out at once and I sobbed. I covered my eyes and waited for my tears to stop. Kaede walked over and put her arms around my shoulders.

"Was it that important to you?" She asked me sadly.

I nodded the best I could and tried to not sob too much. "C-captain H-h-h-hitsugaya gave it to me." I told her through my tears. Kaede flinched at this information, then looked down.

"Hinata….this is all my fault. This wouldn't have happened if…"

I shook my head and told her not to blame herself. Though we both knew she would. We stayed in the bathroom for a few minutes while I dried my eyes. Kaede retrieved the headband at one point, but I told her to just throw it away.

After I finally stopped I got a wet towel and cooled my face down, as well as clean away my tears. Though there was no hiding that I had cried. My eyes were too puffy for that. Instead of heading back to the practice room… where Chitose and Toushiro were… we decided to go back to our room.

Kaede led the way and I kept my eyes to the floor. I knew that Toushiro would eventually notice that I no longer had the hairband. I felt empty inside. Numb to my surroundings. Like I wasn't even there.

I didn't register when we got back to our room. I didn't notice Miharu asking me what was wrong. I didn't notice lying down on my bed, or Kaede sitting on hers. I just lied there, not thinking.

I didn't even notice the knock on the door or Kaede going over to answer it. I didn't pay attention to the talking, or when the door closed, or when Kaede sat next to me.

"You ok, Hinata-chan?"

My eyes shot open immediately and reality hit me. Not Kaede's voice… it was…

I pushed myself up to look right into two blue green eyes. The eyes that I hadn't seen this close up in nine months.

"C-captain Hitsugaya?!" I stuttered in surprise. "W-why? Huh? Where's-?"

"Calm down and ask one at a time." He said in his serious voice.

I paused, took a long breath, and let it out. "Why are you here, captain?" I asked him.

"I wanted to know why you left and didn't come back." He answered me, easily. Of course he'd notice. I felt dread at how I must look to him right now. "What was your next question?"

"Um…where's Kaede?" I looked at the door.

"She went for a walk."

I looked at him in confusion. "Walk?"

He ignored my confusion. "You going to tell me why you didn't go back to the practice room?"

It all came back to me. I looked away.

"And are you going to tell me why…" He lightly held my chin and turned me back. "Your eyes are all red and puffy?"

My heartbeat speeded up as I noticed how pretty his eyes were. I became frozen by his gaze. His hand left my chin and touched the top of my head.

"And where's the headband I gave you?" He asked me with a scowl.

I snapped out of my trance. "N-nowhere." I looked away again.

"Tell me." He said sternly. I shook my head and he groaned. "Why won't you tell me? Is it that… you don't think it's 'important'?"

I looked back at him immediately. "No! Never! I just don't want to tell you that it-!" I stopped myself in time. He stared me down.

"It what? Come out with it, I'll find out even if you don't tell me."

I looked down and hung my head. "That… it was dropped into a toilet."

A moment of silence passed. "It was that brown haired girl, wasn't it? Chitop or something like that." He mumbled.

"H-how did you…?"

He shrugged. "I saw her glaring at you earlier and guessed. What happened exactly?"

_'I want to know too.'_ Miharu said. I had forgotten all about her until just now.

I paused for a minute, and then began from when Chitose walked up, skipping Kaede's makeout tease and a bit of my response to Chitose, and finishing with when Kaede and I were released from the kido.

Toushiro listened calmly all the way through and, when I finished, thought to himself. I took the moment to look at him thoroughly. Spiky white hair, beautiful blue green eyes, lightly tanned skin. Like had done when we first met. But more so now. My feelings for him made me want to memorize now. His scent, the way his brows furrowed, how he crosses his arms, everything.

_'Wait! You finally…?'_ Miharu asked as she noticed how I was acting.

_'Yes. I… love Toushiro-san very much; I realized then, when Chitose was threatening me, that I have for a while.'_ I admitted to Miharu.

Miharu was speechless, but I could feel her approval and how pleased she was in the silence.

Toushiro looked over at me. Next thing I knew I was getting wacked in the head with Hyourinmaru. "**BAKA!**" He yelled. "What were you two thinking?! Of course something bad was going to happen! You two are both idiots!! Don't purposefully get yourself into those kinds of situations! IDIOT!!!" He whacked me again.

I rubbed my head where he hit me. I looked up under my lashes at him.

"Stupid. I heard the_ whole _story from those girls as well. And you still haven't told me why your eyes are puffy."

I thought for a second. "Whole…?"

"Every little sentence and detail. You certainly _omitted_ a lot!" He barked at me.

I thought to myself._ He knows…everything we said_… my face got hot and Miharu started laughing at me.

"So… you going to tell me why your eyes are puffy?" Toushiro repeated.

I felt embarrassed at what the answer was. I looked down. "W-well. That's b-because… er… I…"

He 'mm'hmm'-ed and waited for me to continue.

"B-because…."

"Because?" He asked.

My eyes flickered back to him. "Because I lost the thing you gave me."

"Why would you cry about something like that?" I flinched at that. I had hoped that would be enough. I didn't know what to say, I played with my fingers.

"Well?"

I ignored him and tried to make it look like I was more interested in what I was doing. I felt his hands grab my face and turn me back toward him. I was surprised to see that he was two inches from me. My face got hot again.

"Well?" Toushiro asked again, more annoyed.

The words came out on their own, hypnotized by him. "Because it was something you gave me." His eyes widened a bit and so did mine.

_'I-I said it?!_' My inner voice panicked. Miharu 'aw'-ed at it.

_'W-w-w-w-what a-a-am I going to do?!!! I actually said it!!!!'_

My panic was forgotten when Toushiro pulled me closer to him. I felt his lips touch mine. I froze for a second then started kissing him back instinctively. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. Not questioning, just enjoying the moment for all it was worth.

**Toushiro vision**

"Well?" I asked her. This cat and mouse game was beginning to annoy me. Once again she looked away to ignore me. In my frustration I put my hands on her face and made her look back at me, to make her pay attention to me.

Her pale eyes sparkled when they met mine again. I had to, more than anything, keep her from looking away.

"Well?"

I realized earlier.

When they left and they didn't return with those girls that something was wrong.

When that girl told me what she did to Hinata-chan and what it made me feel.

When I saw Hinata-chan's puffy eyes from when she cried.

When I touched her and couldn't help but do it again, to want to do it again.

I realized then. But maybe it had been going on for a much longer time than I originally thought.

"Because it was something you gave me." She answered in that quiet voice of hers. Both of our eyes widened.

Even now I don't want to let go of her. But I know why.

_'Go on already!'_ Hyourinmaru barked impatiently.

I paused. _'Just…'_

I pulled Hinata-chan closer and kissed her. She paused for a long second then kissed back and wrapped her arms around me. It made me want to hold her tighter.

_'…shut up already.'_

After a minute we stopped and looked at each other. She blushed and looked away. I couldn't help but smirk at her response.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" A girl screamed.

I snapped my head to the door. Several screams also rang out. I wondered if it was Hinata's roommate getting revenge, but I had the feeling it wasn't. I stood up and grabbed Hyourinmaru from where I had set him down after reprimanding Hinata-chan.

"What was that?!" Hinata-chan asked, standing up as well.

"Don't know. Stay here, get Miharu out just in case." I told her and walked out of the room. I ran toward where the screams were coming from.

**Hinata vision**

"What was that?!" I asked standing up. The screams didn't sound like the result of a prank.

"Don't know. Stay here, get Miharu out just in case." Toushiro told me, rushing out of Kaede and I's room. I reached under the bed and retrieved Miharu.

She sighed._ 'Someone had better be dying to have interrupted such a cute moment.'_

I frowned and glared at my zanpakto._ 'That's a horrible idea! Don't think like that!!'_

_'Well they had better.'_

I groaned and stayed where I was for a minute, thinking over what just happened...with Toushiro. I blushed again much to Miharu's amusement. I wondered what was going through Toushiro's mind as he...did that. Maybe my love wasn't one sided this time. I looked at the door that he had gone through just a moment ago and started walking toward the open doorway.

_'Hinata. Toushiro said to stay put.'_ Miharu scolded me.

_'It'll be fine. Besides, he's not my captain YET!'_

_'You're going to get in trouble.'_

I poked my head out. _'No I'm….'_

I didn't finish my sentence. At the end of the hallway was a huge monster. It had a skull head, a hole in its midsection, and was deformed beyond belief. I knew they were human souls but it didn't look even remotely human in any way.

A hollow.

I got only long enough to pull out Miharu before it charged towards me.

* * *

_CLIFFHANGER!!! ^^ thx for reading again… wait… now that Hitsugaya and Hinata have become close… does that mean you guys won't read anymore?! NOOOEZZZ!!! O_O!!!_


	9. Chapter 9 Failing voices

_Chaaaappppterrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 9!!!! Here we are! Like always review comment, and feedback, and crud. ^^- (ish happy about reviews for ch 8)_

_::::::Authors NOTE!!!::::::::::_

_Thanks to everyone's support this whole time! ^^ This fanfic has far exceeded my own expectations and I never realized how much people would like it. ^^ ....this chapter makes me very nervous! -_-' anyway: NOW to the FLUFFY FIC!! :3_

* * *

**Toushiro vision**

I hurried towards the scream. I came to where two hallways crossed and looked to my left and saw a small group of academy students standing around. Several students were collapsed on the ground, bleeding.

I ran over to them.

"What's going on?" I asked them.

A boy with wide eyes turned to me. "I-it was a hollow! I don't know where it came from!! We were heading back to our rooms and…!" He gulped and looked down at the students on the ground.

"A hollow?" I looked at the kids on the ground too. They had multiple cuts all over, but they weren't dead. I told the students to bandage them the best they could and take them somewhere safe and headed off to look for any other signs of the hollow. If it wasn't found soon then many more would be injured by it. But in the back of my mind I wondered why it didn't kill them and just left them there, along with all those others. It made no sense!

I ran down the hallways, looking for any other signs from the hollow. I was passing another hallway when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

"Fujiwara?" I mumbled looking down the hall.

Kaede looked over her shoulder at me. In front of her was a huge hollow, and a girl's body was lying on the floor, a girl with long brown hair.

**Hinata vision**

I raised Miharu and just barely made it in time to block its attack. Its two claws scraped eerily against the zanpakto and held them there, trying to push it out of the way. My hands shook as I tried to keep off of me. The hollow lurked above me, using both arms to try to crush me.

'_Hinata push it off!'_

'_I'm trying!'_ I responded and once again tried to push back the hollow.

My eyes widened. The huge hollows neck extended and shot down towards me. I slipped Miharu out from under its palms and jumped out of the way just in time. The head stopped above the floor and it lunged for me. I hopped to my left and the hollow crashed into the wall.

I raised Miharu back in front of me, pointing it at the hollow.

I laughed and pulled itself out of the wall. **"You're pretty good, Reaper to-be. But your skill level won't be enough!" **It lumbered toward me, taking its time.

'_What should we do?' _ I asked Miharu as it approached.

'_Well we have two good options. A: run away and B: tell it how tasty Chitose tastes and lead it to her.'_

'_MIHARU!' _I scolded.

'_Hey, you have to admit they're good choices. Especially choice B. Let's do that one!'_

'_No!'_

I was so busy getting mad at Miharu that I stopped paying attention to the hollow. It swiped a hand at my head; I ducked in the nick of time and backed up out of range.

'_Hinata! Remember your lessons, off with its head!' _

'_Right.' _

The hollow came toward me again and swiped at me again. I sidestepped the attack and brought Miharu down and through its hand. The hollow screeched in pain and fixed its yellow eyes on me, the glimmered with rage.

"Don't make light of me!" I said out loud and put on the bravest face I had.

"**Try saying that after a gouge your intestines out."** It growled at me.

**Toushiro vision**

"Captain Hitsugaya!" Kaede called.

I noticed the hollow behind her raising a claw. I rushed forward and blocked the attack. Kaede watched with wide eyes as I threw it backwards. She whistled as it fell down several feet away.

"Nice one." She commented. "Where's Hinata?"

"Back in your room." I answered watching the hollow. I nodded to Chitose. "What happened?"

"I was passing by and saw that Chitose was about to get killed so I stepped in. Though so far you're doing a much better job!"

I paused. "You would actually save Chitose…despite what she did to you and Hinata?"

She nodded. "'Course I would! I just wouldn't let her die!"

I thought about this. An admirable quality. Just what we needed in a shinigami, I made a note to mention this to the headmaster later.

She continued. "Besides I think anyone would rather," I gasped, "do the killing themselves." Her zanpakto shimmered, my blood streamed down my arm. While I had been thinking she had run her sword into my shoulder. She pulled her sword out of me. I staggered and almost dropped Hyourinmaru.

'_Toushiro!!' _

I dropped to one knee and clutched my shoulder, trying to slow down the blood flow.

"K-kaede…why…?" I managed to get out over the pain, looking at her.

She smirked at me. "I guess I'll go ahead and tell you, since you're dying anyway. I'm from a low lineage bloodline. Full of peasant workers, farmers, and servants. Due to this bloodline of mine I've never gotten respect and people like Chitose have always looked down on me. When I was alive I was abused by my parents and one day, when my father was drunk, he threw me into a creek and I cracked my head on a rock. I died that day."

She began wiping my blood on her sleeve. "Then when I came to the soul society I showed some talent so they sent me here. But no matter what I did, or how much I showed my abilities, I was still looked down upon. Then Hinata came along. Got special treatment and soared above and beyond me! It was always Hinata this or Hinata that! It sickened the HELL out of me!" She clenched her teeth. "Then I got a plan. Befriend her, get all buddy buddy, then use her to get a special recommendation and fame for myself!! But then she goes and makes me…. Get close to her.

Before I knew it she really was my friend. She…made me forget all my angst and hatred. Seeing how pure and kind she was made me loath my awful side. And when Chitose did that… what I caused… the pain I caused that innocent girl. I hated myself beyond belief."

She hung her head for a minute. I felt pity for this girl. This sorry girl.

"Then… I came along and Chitose was getting killed by the hollow. I can't tell you… how much I enjoyed her fright." She smiled, an insane glitter filler her eyes. "She called 'help me help me!'" She laughed. "Can you imagine a more pathetic spectacle?! Best show I've ever SEEN! Then the hollow stops attacking her and leaves her there for me. And we start talking. Can you believe it? A hollow understands what** I'm **going through! Someone finally understood!!"

She grinned evilly at me. "So then it offers me a deal I can't refuse. Team up with them, get what I want, and get power! Power that will make everyone who ahs mocked me shake in FEAR!! How could I refuse. And step one is to hand Hina-chan over to them." She turned away and began walking down the hall. "Thanks for telling me where she is!"

I stared in horror at the twisted girl. "Wait! Fujiwara! I thought you were Hinata's FRIEND!! What happened to just five minutes ago when you were concerned for her?! This isn't you! Don't be fooled, the hollow-"

"SHUT UP!!" She glared at me. "Stop acting superior!! You people always do this! You have no idea, you don't know me! Don't try to make me look like the bad guy!!" She laughed strangely and clutched her head, sobbing. I suddenly realized that she had gone half insane since the last time I saw her. "What's one or two fools to me? I'm far above you! I'm special! I deserve recognition! I'll do anything for myself. I'm just… selfish like that. But when I'm a GOD you people will praise me. See ya later, Reaper!" She ran off cackling.

I stared at her. "'God'? What the fuck? What did you tell her?" I asked the hollow.

It laughed**. "Nothing really. Though I did influence her mind a bit to my liking. Though it looks like she's gone a bit off the deep end due to it."** It laughed. **"She be tasty to eat, probably laugh while I chewing her bones!"**

"…you brainwashed her?"

"**Something like that. Just put this in her ear."** It help up a wormy looking thing sticking out of its palm. **"And just shifted things round a bit." **It giggled at my horrified expression.

I glared at it, wanting to rip its head off. "Bastard. What do you want with Hinata anyway?"

It started coming toward me. **"Why should I tell you? In a minute you're going to be dead anyway. I think I'll start with those pesky little eyes of yours."**

I gritted my teeth.

'_Toushiro, you can't fight like this…'_ Hyourinmaru commented as I tried to stand.

'_I know that, but I don't have much choice, do I? Besides there's still…' _I glanced at the unconscious Chitose.

'_You always have too good options. A:-'_

'_Don't start.'_

'_Dammit.'_

**Hinata vision**

I blocked another attack, throwing the hollow off again. It staggered backwards a few steps but quickly regained its balance. I huffed and kept my eyes on the hollow.

'_Hinata you have to end this soon. You can't take much more.'_ Miharu told me.

'_I know.' _

I suddenly felt a pang in my chest. I hunched over and clutched the front of my kimono.

'_Hinata?! What's wrong?'_

'_I…I don't know. It feels like something bad has happened!_' A mental picture of Toushiro flitted into my mind_. 'I hope Toushiro-san is alright.'_

'_Worry about him later. You can't afford to be distracted right now!'_

'_Don't have to remind me.' _

I heard something behind me, I whipped my head around to see Kaede.

"Kaede!!" I smiled warmly.

"Hey, Hinata! You ok?" She asked me, running up next to me.

"Yeah I-" I noticed her sleeve. "Kaede?! Are you hurt?!"

She paused and looked at the blood on her sleeve. "This? Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine, just a scratch is all."

I was still concerned but she seemed ok so I let is pass.

She looked at the hollow. "Ugly guy. Let's kill it already, you distract it and I'll chop it's head open."

I glanced at the hollow. "But its neck-"

"Don't worry! I'll be fine, we have to kill it before it has the chance to get anyone else!" Her determined face put me at ease. I nodded at her.

"Ok. Get ready." I took a step forward.

'…_Something's not right.'_ Miharu mumbled as the hollow lumbered toward us.

'_What do you mean?'_ Its eyes honed in on us.

'_The blood on her sleeve… doesn't it look like it was smeared on? … and as far as I can tell… she's not injured in any way…'_

I stopped as Miharu's observations sunk in_. 'Miharu…what are you-?'_

'_HINATA BEHIND YOU!!'_ Miharu yelled at me.

I spun instinctively and blocked a sword that was just about to stab me. At the other end was Kaede.

"Shit." She mumbled and knocked my sword off of hers. She took another swing above my head. I raised Miharu, blocked the attack, and threw her off balance. She loss her balance and stumbled back a step. I rushed forward and put the tip of my zanpakto against her neck.

"Kaede? Why are you attacking me?!" I asked her. A silence passed. Slowly at first, but it became louder. Laughter. She was laughing!

"Why do you think, stupid? I was trying to cut your arms off!" She smirked at me.

I stared at her in horror. "Cut…? Why?! What are you talking about?!"

She looked behind me. Smiled. Locked her eyes with mine again. "I'm with the hollows. If I help them get you then I get everything I've ever wanted!"

"Me? What…?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't believe this. You haven't even noticed your own abilities! How pathetic!" I was about to ask another question, but the hollow took another swipe at me, leaving me with no choice other than to move away from Kaede.

She tsked me, fingering her sword. It was right them that I noticed it had bloodstains on it.

"Hinata, you sure are dumb. You should have killed me, get rid of one of your opponents. But no, now you have to deal with me and the hollow. Fool." She grinned at me. "So what would you prefer? Your right arm or your left?"

"Kaede… why are you doing this? Aren't we friends?" I stared at her.

"FRIENDS? HA! We were never friends! The only reason I started being nice to you was to get attention from the higher ups! You were never ANYTHING TO ME!" She laughed at me.

I stared at her. "…But…you were my friend. I… always thought of you as my best friend. A **sister** even…I liked hanging out with you. It felt like there was at least one person in the academy who liked me. And even better it was you."

"What are you spouting now?" She grumbled.

"I was very happy when we became friends… it was fun." I felt my eyes brimming. She clenched her teeth. "That's why… I don't believe you. The Kaede I've known this whole time wouldn't do this. Not to me."

"What? Are you retarded?" She laughed. "You don't know me! How can you possibly-"

"OF COURSE I KNOW YOU! YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND!!" I yelled at her. "I'll always know you. This isn't you. You could never hurt me. You're good. Please…Kaede stop this." I begged her, the tears in my eyes stung.

Kaede frowned, glared. She tilted her head, and smirked evilly. "I'm good? Try asking the captain about that part. Ever wonder where this blood came from." She pointed to her sleeve and grinned as it sunk in.

My fists gripped around Miharu. I clenched my teeth. "You… Kaede what did you do to Captain Hitsugaya?"

She grinned at me. "Do you need to ask?" She laughed loudly, the hollow chuckled. "What do you think now? Still think I'm-?!" She halted as I punched her. Kaede fell backwards. I grabbed her kimono and shoved her to the ground, pinning her down.

"H-hinata? Y-you wouldn't… I mean… you said it yourself. I'm your best-"

"Kaede. You have five seconds to tell me what you did to the captain before I** kill you**." I growled at her.

Kaede stared at me. Then looked past me. Her eyes widened. Miharu was pierced through the head of the hollow, which was slowly disintegrating to nothing. I had made sure to dispatch of it before this. She gaped at her fallen comrade, then looked back at me. She was beginning to tremble.

"H-hinata-"

I put a hand on her head and yanked her hair. "**Tell me**." I glared at her. I felt indescribable rage inside me, taking over my every thought, my every action.

"I-I-I-I n-nothing! I just stabbed him! That's it. He was still alive when I left! H-Hinata you wouldn't- I mean you could never-"

"Kill you? Of course I could. I just would have a bad taste in my mouth for awhile is all." I slowly released Kaede. "I'll let you go for now. But if he's dead… I'll track you down and slice **your head** in two!" I vowed. I got off of my former friend and walked away, catching Miharu in my hand as she fell from the last remaining bit from the hollow. I heard Kaede get to her feet and run away.

'_Goodbye…Kaede.'_ I thought one last time, a cold feeling swept through me.

I walked to the next hallway connecting to this one and took off, searching for any sign of Toushiro. I shed a few tears for Kaede as I ran. Miharu knew that trying to console me would do no good so she kept quiet.

I ran down several hallways, looking desperately for him.

'_Please. Please be okay.'_ I wished. I closed my eyes and his face flashed into my mind, making me run faster. '_Toushiro!'_

**Toushiro vision**

The hollows claws scraped against Hyourinmaru. I grimaced as my shoulder pained me again. I shook the hollow off and huffed. The hollow took its time getting up. It didn't need to hurry, I wasn't going anywhere. I searched my mind for any way to end this. I couldn't use Hyourinmaru's shikai or bankai with my shoulder like it was. I couldn't leave Chitose behind, nor could I keep the hollow back or get her to safety. I was trapped.

'_I can't believe I let this happen! I thought I was a captain. To think I just let that girl…'_

'_You didn't let her. She tricked us, we had no reason to suspect her. She was Hinata's friend after all.'_

I twitched. Hinata… that's right. She's in danger too. I gripped Hyourinmaru. '_That girl better have not hurt Hinata…'_

'_Faster you kill the hollow the faster we can go find her.' _Hyourinmaru told me.

I turned my attention back to the hollow. _'Yeah but that's the problem right there.'_ I could only hold my zanpakto with one hand, less power and maneuverability than with two. I was at a severe disadvantage, not even counting Chitose, my shoulder, or my quickly weakening state. My vision was starting to act strangely as well, everything was beginning to blur.

The hollow lunged at me, this time I raised Hyourinmaru and ran the zanpakto through its hand. It roared in pain as I sliced a chunk out. The hollow glared at me as its hand froze solid.

"Want to try that again? Next time I'll slice your whole arm off." I vowed.

"**Let's see you try."** It hissed at me.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall, I half turned, expecting Kaede or another hollow. Two pale lavender eyes met mine. I didn't react for a few seconds.

"Captain Hitsugaya!" Hinata smiled. She ran toward me.

"Hinata-chan?" I mumbled quietly in disbelief as she hugged me. It took me a long second to realize that she was crying. "Why are you crying now?" I sighed.

She sniffed and buried her head into my good shoulder. "I thought you were dead! Kaede said she stabbed you!"

'_Oh so Kaede did go to get Hinata… what happened anyway?' _I thought to myself.

'_Obviously she kicked that bitch's ass.' _

I sighed heavily. "You're so stupid sometimes, Hinata." I put my arm around her and savored the moment.

I heard laughter. **"What's this now? A reunion with your lover or something?"**

I turned my head to the hollow and glared. "Hinata get back." I ordered her. She noticed the hollow and began to let me go but flinched.

"Captain?! Your shoulder!! Did Kaede do that?!!" She gawked at my injury.

"It's fine, now do as you're told."

The hollow laughed again. **"How funny. A shrimp acting tough for his shrimpet!" **It fixed its gaze on us and stopped. **"Wait a minute… is that her? That Hyuuga girl we came for… now that I think about she does… heh heh how interesting."**

This was starting to annoy me. "It's about time you fess up. What do you guys want with Hinata anyway?" I raised Hyourinmaru up to point at the hollow.

"**Wouldn't YOU like to know!" **It teased me. **"Besides, in your current condition you won't live long enough to find out."**

"Captain…" Hinata mumbled.

"Ignore it. Don't let it get to you." I told her. I was about to take a step forward but I felt Hinata grab my arm. I looked over at her. "Hinata, let go."

"No."

I sighed. "As your captain I order you to let go."

"You're not my captain yet."

"Hinata…" I growled at her.

She held on tighter. "Your face is pale…"

"So is yours."

She glared at me. "You know what I mean! You're hurt badly, I won't watch you die!"

"I'm not going to die-"

"You can barely stand! I refuse to lose anyone else, especially not you!"

I flinched at that and stared into her eyes. They glimmered with unshed tears. "Hinata…"

"**YAWN! What is this a soap opera?"** The hollow grumbled. **"Seriously, kid, if he wants an early death let him! You're not going to live that much longer after him anyway."**

I remembered the hollow and the current situation. I looked away from those eyes and pulled my arm out of her grasp. "Hinata, get Chitose and get yourself and her to safety."

"…Chitose??? What?" A pause. "What the heck?! When did she get there?!!!"

I rolled my eyes. "She's been there the whole time."

"Really?! I didn't notice at all!"

"…**Idiot."**

"That's my line." I replied.

**Hinata vision**

I looked at Chitose's still body on the ground and wondered if she really was still alive. I saw her body move, breathing, which answered my question.

Toushiro stood in front of me, even in his condition he was still trying to protect people. The hollow started coming toward us.

"Hinata, get Chitose and get away from here." Toushiro repeated.

"No!"

"Don't start this again." I could tell he was losing his patience but I didn't care.

"Captain I won't leave you behind!"

"Just go." He said coldly. I stared at him, it felt like everything was ebbing away from me. "Why are you just standing there? Go!"

I looked up at the hollow, at Toushiro, at the ground.

'_I…I can't... Why am I not allowed to help him?'_

'…'

'_I… I wish there was something I could do… am I really this useless to him?' _

'_Hinata…you really want to help him? Answer carefully.'_

The hollow charged at Toushiro. He braced himself.

'_Yes.'_

'_Then, just want it!'_

The hollow swiped down at Toushiro.

"Toushiro!" I yelled.

A bright light surrounded him. It blinded me for a moment. When I reopened my eyes Toushiro was staring at his shoulder. He moved it around a bit and looked over at me.

His shoulder was completely healed.

The hollow was also staring at Toushiro.

A long moment passed and the hollow started laughing uncomfortably .

"**Well, guess I should…. mosey along now."** It began shuffling away.

"Ahem." Toushiro turned back to it. "Where do you think you're going?"

It chuckled uncomfortably again but stopped when Toushiro released his bankai and got two ice wings. It was the first time I'd ever seen it so I made sure to pay close attention as he beat up the hollow, apparently enjoying it.

One Hour Later…

"Well it looks like there were only a few injuries, no one was seriously injured or killed, thank goodness." A man, one of Toushiro's subordinates, told us.

He sent the man on his way and we watched as the other shinigami got accounts of what happened from the other students. No one had seen Kaede since she ran off and we had yet to tell them of her betrayal. Toushiro didn't have to tell me that even if she was found that she would be punished severely for what she had done.

"Toushiro…?" I mumbled, as we sat down, waiting to give our accounts on what had happened.

"Hm?"

"I just remembered. You stopped calling me Hinata-chan earlier."

"And I just remembered that you stopped talking to me properly and started talking to me in a very intimate way about that time."

I paused.

'_He's right. You ARE calling him by his first name.'_

"Oh! Sorry!" I apologized quickly but he just shrugged.

"Its fine, I don't mind."

A small silence passed until randomly Toushiro pinched my ear.

"Yah! What are doing???"

He pinched harder. "I remembered that you completely disobeyed my orders earlier as well. This is punishment." He pulled on my ear and pinched it again.

"Ok ok ok! I'm sorry." I leaned toward him to relieve pressure on the ear he was killing.

'_fufufu. This is entertaining.'_ Miharu giggled.

'_No it isn't!'_

After another minute of ear pinching punishment he was satisfied and released me. I rubbed my poor ear. Finally a shinigami came over to take down our accounts. We stood up and followed the man through the academy and into the headmaster's office where they were currently set up.

Three shinigami, and, surprisingly, Toushiro's lieutenant waited for us inside.

The shinigami straightened up as we entered and the three subordinates bowed to Toushiro. "Captain!"

He waved for them to stop and we sat down in some chairs and started telling them what had happened, skipping everything before we had…kissed… and including the kiss. I suddenly remembered that during Toushiro's account. I wondered if that kiss had meant something to him too, he didn't act like it did… finally Toushiro finished and I gave mine, omitting a bit. The shinigami were silent when I was done.

One of the male shinigami sighed. "I guess this means we have a fugitive reaper on the loose, with the knowledge Fujiwara has she could become dangerous for the soul society…"

Another nodded. "And the fact that hollows would even attack the soul society, much less the academy of all places, is also troubling."

The third agreed. "Especially how they specially targeted Hyuuga-san. We'll have to figure out why they did that if we want to prevent this from happening again."

I was wondering about that too… suddenly something clicked in me. Something that Miharu had said to me nine whole months ago.

'_Miharu, did you know something like this would happen?'_

'_Eh? What do you mean?'_

'_Remember before we left for the seireitei and I was still making my decision you_ said "_If you stayed here you'd make them a target for attack". I didn't notice until just now but that statement was… a bit odd. Why would me being there make them a _target_? I didn't really think about that until just now. Answer me truthfully, did you know something like this was going to happen?'_

'… _sorta.'_

I almost fell out of my chair, much to the surprise of everyone in the room. _'MIHARU! What haven't you told me?'_

'_hmm… maybe I should just let you find out on your own.' _She teased.

'_Miharu this is no time for games! Seriously why am I being targeted?'_

'_For being extra special adorable?'_

'_That's not funny.'_

'_Yes it is!'_

'_Stop playing around already!!'_

'_YAWN. I'm sleepy, good night.' _

'_What??? You can't sleep, you don't need to! Miharu!!' _I yelled at her a bit but she continued her sleeping farce and ignored me.

Lieutenant Matsumoto had been thinking to herself the whole time. She straightened up and walked over to us.

"Captain."

"Yes?"

"Something that you two had told us during your accounts has been bothering me. And they've started to link up. Can I do an experiment?"

Toushiro and I looked at other, I shrugged, and he gave her the go ahead.

"Alright, first, Captain take out your zanpakto."

"My zanpakto???"

"It's needed."

He paused but obeyed, holding his sword in one hand.

Matsumoto nodded, pleased. "Now, Hinata-chan, I need your hand."

"My hand???" I asked her, holding it out.

"Yes, and I need The Captain's hand."

Toushiro gave Masumoto a look. "Lieutenant, where are you going with this?"

"Just going to do this Captain." She yanked our hands and made link fingers. I blushed and Toushiro gawked at what she did.

"Lieutenant!! What is the-?!" He was cut off when Hyourinmaru switched to shikai form. He stared at his zanpakto. "Again?" He mumbled.

"Eh?" A shinigami looked at the captain.

"Has this happened before?" Matsumoto asked him curiously.

"Yeah, but it happened nine months ago when-" He stopped mid sentence. "When I had gone to send Hinata to the soul society…" Then he looked at me. "Hinata… is this your doing?"

"EH???" My mouth dropped open. "What are you talking about? I didn't do-…" I paused.

'_Miharu. I have an idea what my ability is.'_

'_And that is?'_

'_Er… like sharing energy or something?'_

'_Close but no. '_

'_Miharu!'_

"Hinata?" Toushiro asked.

I bit my lip and looked up at them. "I think… I might be doing it, but I'm not actually doing it."

Matsumoto hmmed. "Well we need a proper test." She held out her hand. "DO ME NEXT!!" Before Toushiro could stop her she grabbed my hand and pulled out her zanpakto. It changed as well, to its shikai I supposed since I had never seen hers before.

She cheered and started parading around the office, showing off how she 'solved the mystery' or something like that.

"Has this happened any other times as you recall?" A shinigami asked me.

I was about to answer no but something came to mind. "I think so… when I first came to the academy Kaede and I were doing Kido spells. She put her arm around my shoulder and even though she had said the chant completely wrong she fired a kido at an instructor. She had tried it again later but couldn't do it again…"

"Oh! You were one of the girls who almost blew up he instructor?" A shinigami laughed.

"Don't forget about earlier…" Toushiro added to the conversation. "When Hinata showed up while I was fighting the hollow she called my name and suddenly my shoulder was all healed, good as new. And it felt like I was completely re-energized." Toushiro thought for a second. "If I was to surmise… your ability is to…bring out other people's abilities. Up until now you had only done this when you were in contact with other people, but earlier you did it to me from four feet away, not only that but you did it differently from the other times. Do you think this is correct?" He asked me.

'_Miharu…?'_

'_Yes, he's very correct. Although the last time was done more consciously.'_

'_Couldn't you have told me all this?'_

'_Awww. But that's no fun!'_

"Yes, it is." I replied. Everyone in the room thought to themselves.

"So what do we do now? It's a good ability to have, and imagine if she is trained properly! This could be our ace in the hole! Not having to expend energy to heal or to bring out a shikai. And imagine the possibilities is she learned to control it!" A shinigami said.

"No wonder the hollows wanted her, such an amazing power! Imagine if one had eaten her, yikes!" Another added.

"Men." Toushiro mumbled.

"Yes Captain?" The shinigami straightened up.

"The information regarding Hinata's ability is not to leave this room!"

"WHAT?!!!" Their mouths dropped open.

I also stared at Toushiro as he continued. "That kind of ability is good, but imagine if everyone knew about it. Hinata could be used for personal gain in that situation. Someone might even become captain if she became strong enough to release bankai. She could even be in danger if the information leaked out too far, it's best if this stays secret, at least until she is strong enough to protect herself."

After a minute the shinigami agreed with him but asked what they should do now. Toushiro supposed that I probably shouldn't stay in the academy, best to get me somewhere more secure and where there were less people that could be injured.

"Call in the headmaster." He told them and a shinigami ran outside to fetch him.

Matsumoto grinned at him. "What are you up to Shiro-chan?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

A few minutes later the shinigami came back with the headmaster.

"You wanted me, captain?" The headmaster asked him.

"Yes, I was wondering if Hinata was excelling in her studies."

"Eh? Of course, she's one of the most talented students in the fourth class, she even outshines several fifth and sixth years!"

"Then it shouldn't be much problem if she left the academy early."

"WHAT?!!!" Everyone's mouths dropped open including mine.

* * *

_That's__ it for chapter 9!! Yay! This is one of my more controversial chapters…. -__-' one I'm the most worried about. Feel free to give advice on how to make it better._


	10. Chapter 10 Beside you I stay, in THE END

_Chapter 10!!!!!!!! :3 *sigh* this has been coming for awhile. Enjoy THE END._

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* * *

  
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**Hinata vision**

"Leave the academy early?!" The headmaster fixed his hanging open mouth."What are you asking?? She's only a fourth year!"

Toushiro didn't seem troubled by everyone's shock. "Well, you said it yourself she's talented, besides I think she's already experienced to leave, she even has a zanpakto." He pointed to Miharu sitting against my chair.

"But she has yet to finish many of the academy's-"

Toushiro raised a hand. "I will make sure she receives training to make up for the missed lessons. I don't think Rangiku would mind taking care of that. Since she has more than enough free time since she always doesn't do her own work. Right, Lieutenant?"

Matsumoto sighed but smirked at me. "Guess I have no choice, oh well, might be fun."

The headmaster gaped at her, then at Toushiro. His face turned a new shade of purple and he jabbed a meaty finger at him. "Now see here! Just because you're a captain doesn't mean you can-"

He looked at him with icy eyes, making the man shiver. "What can I not do?"

The headmaster stuttered than conceived to the pressure. "Fine. She can go. Happy?" He was escorted out of the room, hanging his head. I felt sorry for the poor man.

"Well that settles it, pack your stuff we're leaving." Toushiro stood up and started walking toward the door.

"Wait a minute!!" I jumped out of my seat and turned to him. "Don't I have a say in any of this??"

Toushiro looked over his shoulder, thought, then turned back around. "Nope. Now are you coming or not?" He asked, holding his hand out for me.

I looked at his hand, then back at his face. His familiar frown was there, but his eyes were soft and warm, waiting for me. I considered this path. If I took his hand I would never be able to leave him, I'd be with him forever, any other path I could take would never reappear… Why not?

I giggled and ran over to him, squeezing his hand. "Of course!"

He smiled. "Then come on, you slowpoke, we have to get your stuff." He led the way out of the office.

I heard Matsumoto laugh. "Well this is new."

I leaned up against Toushiro's arm as we walked down the hallway.

**.:KAEDE:.**

I watched Hinata walk away from me. Her cold words stung me, my eyes watered. I got to my feet, knowing she would never forgive me. Knowing that I could never come back here. Knowing… that I ruined everything I had worked so hard for. Tears dripped down my face.

I turned and ran as fast as I could down the hall, the opposite way from Hinata, who I would never see again.

_What have I done?!_

_**Go back! Kill them all! Earn what you deserve!**_ A voice cackled_._

_SHUT UP!! Why did I listen to you in the first place?!_

_**Go back go back!**_

_NO! BE QUIET!!!_

I put my hands over my ears, anything to block out the awful things running through my head, sobbing. The world blurred with my tears. I ran down hallway after hallway, a door outside final showed up and I ran out it, through allies, and eventually made it to a gate to the rukongai. The person guarding it wouldn't stand aside until I showed him my zanpakto, he opened the gate for me and I charged toward the trees.

I didn't pay attention to the time, or how my legs ached, or the awful voices in my head. Just to the sounds around me, blocking out everything that just happened.

It got pitch dark. Nighttime. I began to slow my pace but fell over a tree root. I hit the moist ground and listened to the water from a nearby stream. Images floated into my mind.

Stabbing the captain.

Trying to attack Hinata.

Her hating face, her disgust with me.

I broke into fresh sobs and curled into a ball, wanting to disappear, to stop existing.

_I've ruined everything!!_

The reality of my situation slowly sunk in, I betrayed the soul society, injured a captain, tried to assault a fellow student, allied with hollows, and let one… I clutched my head. _What did that monster do to me?!_

"**Hello there, Kaede."** A voice crooned.

My shoulders shook at the voice and my eyes shot open. I shot to my feet and faced the hollow. "Another hollow? What do you want?" I asked it.

"**Oh, just checking up on my little ally is all."**

"I'm NOT your ally! You things ruined my life!!"

"**No YOU ruined your life. And really, what will you do now? You attacked a reaper and a reaper to be, and betrayed the soul society. You know what they'll do? They'll hunt you down and kill you! They're probably on your trail right now. But if you pledge your loyalty to us then I can get you away from here, to a place where they can't get you. How does that sound?"**

"NO WAY! There's no chance that I'm ever going to do anything with you monsters ever again!" My head hurt again and I swayed a bit. I glared at the hollow. "What… did you bastards do to me?"

The hollow laughed. **"Nothing really, according to the one who made the deal with you, just scrambled some things around in your head a bit. Don't you remember? It said that you were quite cooperative afterwards."**

My head flared. I stooped over and clutched it as the memories came back to me.

* * *

I walked around, giving Hinata and the captain some alone time. I spotted the sparring room and went inside. I walked over and picked up a zanpakto sitting in a rack with several others. The kind we used when we practiced in the living world. I fingered the metal blade and walked over to a dummy, I raised the sword above my head.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

I swiveled my head and paused for a minute, still holding the sword above my head.  
That sounded a bit like…

I ran back into the hall, still holding the sword, and turned the corner. Chitose was pinned under the claw of a massive hollow, she spotted me, tears in her eyes.

"K-Kaede!" She cried out weakly. "H-help!!" Her eyes flitted shut and she went limp.

I ran forward instinctively. "I'm coming, hold on super bitch!!" I held the zanpakto and lifted it to cut off the hollow's hand. The hollow disappeared from my sight, surprising me. I felt a presence behind me and turned to see that it had gotten behind me somehow.

_What the…?!_

I grabbed me and pinned me on the floor. I lay still, horrified, as it bent down and sniffed me.

"**Hee hee. You smell of bitterness, maybe you can be useful! Hold still for a minute." **My eyes widened as a wormy looking thing came out of the hollow's wrist.

"N-n-no! St-stop!" I stuttered. The world disappeared from my eyes.

* * *

**"Remember, Kaede? My comrade just…played with your brain a little bit."** The hollow cackled as my shocked eyes stared at the ground. I felt bile rise in my throat.

"You…bastards!" I growled angrily. "Fix it! Fix what you did to me, change me back to how I was BEFORE!!"

The hollow began laughing again. **"That's impossible! You'll be like this forever! That voice you hear is the darkest part of you, and you will listen to it, and one day you'll go insane! Can't wait until then! You were halfway there until just a while ago." **It cackled sadistically. **"So since you have no choice how about coming with me already? You have no where else to go."**

I was about to say no but I thought over the proposal. Forever, being a slave to hollows until I became one myself, or being hunted down and killed by a shinigami. Either way, I was going to be miserable.

**"Well? What's your choice?"**

I clenched my fists and looked up at the hollow. "Neither!" I turned and ran, the hollow pursued me, expecting me to trip and tire. But I already made a choice, the only option I could do. The ground gave way under me and I fell into the river, the one that I had been listening to all this time. The one that I decided to be my third choice, my only choice. I was quickly swept under the icy water.

The hollow didn't follow me, it disappeared, giving up on me.

---

"Hurry! Pull her out." I numbly felt hands pull me out of the water. A woman stood beside me directing a bunch of dirty looking people. The sun stung my eyes.

"Yamada get a towel! Someone do some CPR! Help me get her out of these wet clothes-"

I grabbed the woman's ankle. She looked down at me.

"….no…." I whispered. I looked above her, through the tree canopy. The sun glittered through the leaves. Though everything was slowly getting dark.

"No? What do you mean-"

An older woman put a hand on her shoulder. "Kojima… it's no use. I can see it in the girl's eyes, she's already at peace. You can't save someone who's already decided to not continue here."

The woman named Kojima stared at the old woman, looked back at me, and sighed. She squatted down next to me. "What's your name?" She asked me.

I stared past her, still looking at the sun, at warmth that I could no longer feel. It felt like my body was getting lighter. "….K…ae…de……" I mumbled, using my last bit of strength. I felt my body getting number.

The man named Yamada patted Kojima's shoulder as they watched me. Some of them began crying but I didn't care, I was absorbed in my own thoughts. The dark voices in my head were quiet at last.

'_Hinata…. I'm sorry… I wish I could tell you in person… but it looks like I won't be able to. Be happy… I hope that I'll be able to repay you one day… that I'll be able to say sorry in person……..Hinata…..goodbye…. my friend……………._'

Peace.

12 years later………

"KAEDE! Your special friend is here!" My mother called me.

My face got red. I stuck my head out the door. "MOM! Don't call him THAT!!!" I ran back to my bed, strapped the weapon pouch to my leg, and checked my reflection one last time.

My black hair was tied into two ponytails, no zits, and ninja headband around my forehead. I smiled at myself and left my room. I ran down the hallway and into the living room of our home. My mother smirked at me. "Honestly, you look more and more like your father everyday!"

I ewwed. "I don't want to look like dad! He's ugly!!"

My dad's shoulders sagged at my declaration, but his face had the same frown as it always did. "Temari, look what you've done. Your personality has rubbed off on our daughter."

My mother frowned and groaned. "Well, she could use some of me. Have you looked at her lately? She's practically a clone of you, Shikamaru. Only thing she has of me are her eyes!"

My parents squabbled as I grabbed a bagel and ran to the door. My teammate Hyuuga Akuro waited for me outside.

Akuro looked up as I ran to the door. "Ready?" He asked me.

I grinned at him and nodded. "Hai! Bye mom, bye dad!" I called back to my parents and closed the door behind me. Akuro and I walked and met up with our fellow teammate Akimichi Koken. Koken stated drooling when he saw my bagel but I refused to trade for chips, making him pout all the way to the training area where we were meeting up with our sensei.

We arrived at the training area with him nowhere in sight. We started snickering about how we had beat our 'youthful' sensei there.

"BAAAHHH!" Someone yelled behind us, making us jump. We turned around and sighed.

"Rock-sensei! That was not funny! You almost made me choke on my chips!!" Koken griped at him.

Rock-sensei just laughed at him then raised his eyebrows my way. I was clinging to Akuro's arm. My face turned 12 different shades of red and pink and I let go of him.

"S-sorry Akuro-kun!!" I apologized.

Akuro just waved my apology away. "It's fine."

While sensei talked about what we were doing today I reflected on how Akuro always made me act differently… how I just acted made me feel déjà vu… I wondered why.

I walked alongside them to the matted stumps we would be training with in turns, so we could offer advice to the person before us. Akuro was decided to go first, he was just activating his byakugan when Koken piped up.

"Rock-sensei what's that?" Koken pointed at something on the ground.

"What? Oh that?" Rock sensei walked over to Koken and looked down at something.

"What are you talking about?" I asked as Akuro and I joined them. A small plague lay in the soil with something written on it.

"This thing…?" Akuro asked bending over. "Oh! I know what this is! It's a memorial plaque to my aunt Hinata!"

"Aunt? I didn't know you had an aunt, Akuro." I bent down to look at the plaque too.

He shrugged. "Well, she's dead. She died when she was about my age. This must be the plaque my mother mentioned."

Rock-sensei chuckled. "I still remember her…"

Koken looked up at our sensei. "You knew Akuro's dead aunt?"

Sensei nodded. "Yeap. I was on the same team as your mother's cousin Neji. She was always really quiet. Used to have a huge crush on the current Hokage,

Uzumaki Naruto. Died to save him from some kind of beast, in fact. Whole village was moved by it so the fourth Hokage had a memorial plaque made for her… was a sad day."

Sensei smiled. "But she must be happy wherever she is. Anyway let's get-"

"….sorry……" the words slipped out of my mouth.

"Sorry?" Koken asked looking at me.

I felt tears slip out of my eyes, slowly but building. I sobbed and covered my eyes, not knowing why I was crying or why I felt so sad.

"Kaede? Are you ok?" Akuro asked me, patting my back.

I shook my head and continued crying. My teammates stayed with me as I let out my tears. After I finished Akuro put his arms around me and gave me a hug, my face lit up at that, Koken also gave me a hug, and we were almost killed when Rock-sensei joined in the group hug.

Sensei sighed, sparing our lives by getting out of the group hug. He offered to buy us some lunch, which sent Koken into a frenzied pace toward the nearest bbq place.

All the way there Akuro held my hand and we enjoyed the walk there, together.

While Koken scarped down almost all the food, and Rock-sensei started an eating contest, I found myself thinking about Akuro's aunt. I looked out the window next to me and at the sunny sky.

_'Be happy, Hinata.'_ The words echoed in my mind for a minute.

Then Koken's nasty burp broke my reverie. I threw a balled up napkin at him and yelled for him to grow some manners. Which started a huge food fight, which ended with us getting banned from the bbq restaurant.

**In the soul society...**

Four shinigami peeked around the corner at Hyuuga Hinata, a girl from the 10th division. She stood next to a wall, waiting.

"See, didn't I tell you she's super adorable?"

"Yeah, I should have believed you!"

Hinata nodded at some shinigami that passed her. Greeting them.

"We should go talk to her!!"

"Maybe, if we're lucky, we can get a date!!"

"Maybe get the 10th division lieutenant in on it too!!"

The shinigami giggled at the fantasy.

"Can I help you four with something?" A voice asked them.

The men looked behind them at Lieutenant Matsumoto of division 10.

"L-lieutenant Matsumoto!!" The men shrieked at the gorgeous woman. They almost fell over their own feet turning around to look at her.

They paused, resisting the urge to look down.

"Well?"

"N-no Lieutenant we're perfectly fine!" They waved their hands.

She tilted her head, thinking. "Are you from the 10th division. I don't recognize you."

"Oh! No we're not, we're from the sixth division!" One explained, happy to get her attention.

She smiled. "I see… So do you have business here?"

They looked away. "Not really…"

"So why are you here?"

They looked at each other. One man looked back shyly at the lieutenant. "Well… we actually wanted to ask that Hyuuga girl if she wanted to… hang out with us later." One man blushed, thinking dirty thoughts.

The lieutenant was quiet then smiled at them. "Is that all? Then go ahead, she's not doing anything right now."

The men broke into big grins, thanked her, and ran around the corner to talk to Hinata. Matsumoto rubbed the back of her head and laughed. "I wonder how the captain will react to this… Oh well." She turned and walked away, eager to go play poker.

The four men ran up to Hinata who looked up at them. Lavender eyes making their heartbeats go faster.

"Hello." She greeted them. One began to drool and ended up getting smacked by one of the others.

"Hello, Hinata-chan. You don't know us but we were… wondering…" One man began, looking at her with a huge blush.

"Yes?" She asked.

He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, thinking about how cute she was. "Well if you would like to go hang out for a bit? Like a date y'know?"

Before she could reply someone else entered the conversation.

"Sorry, but she's already has plans."

"Eh?" The foursome looked behind them to see the captain of the 10th division, Hitsugaya Toushiro.

But unfortunately one of the men was an idiot and didn't know this, despite Toushiro's clothes that showed that he was at least a captain.

"Plans? With who? You, shrimp?" The man cackled loudly. "How about you go play on a slide, kid, while we take her on a grownup date."

One of his companions poked him. "Dude, do you know who he is? He's a captain."

The man's jaw dropped open. "Captain? This puny little-" A burst of wind interrupted him. He turned around to see that Toushiro had activated his shikai. Though the spiritual pressure he had was more than enough to scare them.

"Just who are you calling puny?"

They gawked at the captain in terror. "N-no one! Goodbye!!" The men ran back to the 6th division where they received punishment later for speaking to a captain like that.

**Toushiro vision**

I made a mental note as the cowards ran away to report them later on.

"Did you have to use your shikai?" Hinata sighed as I put Hyourinmaru away.

I huffed in annoyance. "Well I just wanted to demonstrate the difference between them and me."

She gave me a look. "It was because of the 'shrimp' comment wasn't it?"

"I didn't say that, that had nothing to do with it!!" I barked at her. She rolled her eyes at me and walked over.

"So, Captain Hitsugaya, did you find the Lieutenant?"

"No." I groaned. "She disappeared again, that's why it took so long to get here. I had to do all her work! Wish she'd just find her bankai and become a captain sometimes so I don't have to do all her work anymore."

Hinata giggled at my complaining.

"Don't laugh at me."

She smiled at me and grabbed my hand. "Ok fine, captain."

I let out a sigh and gripped her hand affectionately. "You can stop calling me captain, Hinata." I told her.

"Ok, Shiro-chan."

"Scratch that, keep calling me captain."

Hinata began laughing at the disgust on my face at having been called by my nickname. I scowled and looked away from her. When we went around a corner and out of sight from everyone else she leaned over and kissed my cheek. I turned toward her and she hugged me.

"I love you, Toushiro." She whispered to me.

I put my arms around her and held her tightly. "I love you too, Hinata… I thought I told you to call me captain."

"Toushiro!" She looked at me with a scowl. I snickered as she hit my shoulder and told her I was just kidding. She commented that I was 'terrible' but lightened up and we continued on our way.

**Hinata vision**

I licked my ice cream and smiled to myself, I couldn't remember the last time I had it. Gigai sure are useful at times like these, I thought to myself. We were currently in the living world, enjoying a nice sunny day.

I glanced at Toushiro who was also eating his ice cream. I came up with a sneaky plan.

"Toushiro."

"Yeah?" He asked.

I dabbed his upper lip with some of my ice cream. "What a fine mustache you have, sir!"

I laughed as he glared at me. "All the more tasty for you to kiss me then, young miss." He remarked, grabbed me and pulled me toward him. Laughing, I kissed him and held onto his arm as we ate our ice creams.

When we finished our ice creams, we started walking around the city we were in, taking our time.

"What do you want to do next?" I asked him cheerfully.

He pondered for a minute and checked his watch. "Well, we still have two hours before we have to go back. We could-"

A girl screamed and we looked to our right to see a ghost girl running away from a hollow.

"HEELP!" She cried out as she ran out of sight.

I looked at Toushiro and sighed. "Looks like our work is never done." I commented. We walked over to a nearby bench, sat down, and left our gigai. Once again in our shinigami uniforms.

We ran after the girl and hollow, doing our duties as shinigami as we always do.

* * *

**As the years passed many plusses would come to recognize two distinct shinigami that often worked together. A white haired captain and a dark haired girl, who after a few years became the lieutenant of the 10th division.**

**And to this day the two are still together, enjoying each day as it passes, sharing the burdens that come with being a shinigami and well… just enjoying each others company.**

**~THE END~**

* * *

_All through this chapter I was playing the songs "Shattered", "May I", "She is the Sunlight" and "Revolution" by Trading Yesterday. Listening to those songs helped me write this fanfic. I am so happy for everyone's love and support through the entire thing. ^^_

_Sorry that it ended so suddenly, but I thought this would be the best way to end it. And we all know it couldn't have gone on forever._

_Right now I am already thinking about my next fanfic and who knows? We might just see Kaede in her own story one day. ^^_

_Thanks again for reading my fanfic and maybe you'll run into some of my others. But for now,_

_Good bye._


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